Usage

In this section we describe how to use the Arduino Serial fixture and how to use a number of additional convenience functions. We assume that the library is installed in the directory where the unit tests reside.

Compilation

First compile the fixture.

g++ -c arduino-serial-fixture/src/Arduino.cc

For all tests that require the serial interface, i.e., tests that require Arduino.h, make sure that the path to the fixture is set.

g++ -I arduino-serial-fixture/src -c test_something.cc

Finally, compile the test main code and link.

g++ -o run_tests test_lib.cc test_something.o Arduino.o

Library

The fixture includes most commonly used functions for serial communication. Additionally, some convenience functions are included to make testing easier. These functions can be accessed by including the header.

#include <Arduino.h>

Easy reading and writing

The functions autoRead() and autoWrite() can be used to read or write to the serial device. These functions take care of type encoding automatically. If, for example, we want to read an integer and a float, we use autoRead() as follows.

int i = Serial.autoRead<int>();
float f = Serial.autoRead<float>();

Conversely, easy writing of an integer and a float can be done with autoWrite() as follows.

autoWrite(1234);
autoWrite(3.14F);

Inspecting and preparing data

The functions inspect() and prepare() can be used to inspect the output buffer and to prepare the input buffer. The inspect() function works like the autoRead() function, except that it operates on the output buffer and does not change any of the internal buffer offsets. If for example, the output buffer contains the string xyz, we can use inspect() as follows.

String s = Serial.inspect<String>(); // Yields "xyz".
char c = Serial.inspect<char>(); // Yields 'x'.

The function prepare() is used to prepare the input buffer. It accepts an arbitrary amount of variables that are of either basic types (e.g., int, char, float, etc.) or of type String. If for example, we want to put a char, a string and an integer in the input buffer, we can use prepare() as follows.

Serial.prepare('c', "xyz", 10);