Remove the Transcript Testing feature (#1583)

Transcript Testing was always an extremely brittle regression testing framework.

We encourage all cmd2 users to use pytest for unit and integration tests and Robot Framework for acceptance tests. These frameworks are much more robust and you can use them to write tests that are less brittle.

Author: tleonhardt

.github/CODEOWNERS

@@ -44,7 +44,6 @@ cmd2/rich_utils.py         @kmvanbrunt
 cmd2/string_utils.py       @kmvanbrunt
 cmd2/styles.py             @tleonhardt @kmvanbrunt
 cmd2/terminal_utils.py     @kmvanbrunt
-cmd2/transcript.py         @tleonhardt
 cmd2/utils.py              @tleonhardt @kmvanbrunt
 
 # Documentation

.pre-commit-config.yaml

@@ -6,9 +6,7 @@ repos:
       - id: check-merge-conflict
       - id: check-toml
       - id: end-of-file-fixer
-        exclude: ^examples/transcripts/
       - id: trailing-whitespace
-        exclude: ^examples/transcripts/
 
   - repo: https://github.com/astral-sh/ruff-pre-commit
     rev: "v0.15.2"

CHANGELOG.md

@@ -22,6 +22,13 @@ prompt is displayed.
       each platform and provided utility functions related to `readline`
     - Added a dependency on `prompt-toolkit` and a new `cmd2.pt_utils` module with supporting
       utilities
+    - Removed **Transcript Testing** feature set along with the `history -t` option for generating
+      transcript files and the `cmd2.transcript` module
+        - This was an extremely brittle regression testing framework which should never have been
+          built into cmd2
+        - We recommend using [pytest](https://docs.pytest.org/) for unit and integration tests and
+          [Robot Framework](https://robotframework.org/) for acceptance tests. Both of these
+          frameworks can be used to create tests which are far more reliable and less brittle.
     - Async specific: `prompt-toolkit` starts its own `asyncio` event loop in every `cmd2`
       application
         - Removed `cmd2.Cmd.terminal_lock` as it is no longer required to support things like

README.md

@@ -77,8 +77,6 @@ command line argument parsing and execution of cmd2 scripting.
 - Text file scripting of your application with `run_script` (`@`) and `_relative_run_script` (`@@`)
 - Powerful and flexible built-in Python scripting of your application using the `run_pyscript`
   command
-- Transcripts for use with built-in regression can be automatically generated from `history -t` or
-  `run_script -t`
 
 ## Installation
 

cmd2/cmd2.py

@@ -31,5 +31,4 @@ incremented according to the [Semantic Version Specification](https://semver.org
 - [cmd2.string_utils](./string_utils.md) - string utility functions
 - [cmd2.styles](./styles.md) - cmd2-specific Rich styles and a StrEnum of their corresponding names
 - [cmd2.terminal_utils](./terminal_utils.md) - support for terminal control escape sequences
-- [cmd2.transcript](./transcript.md) - functions and classes for running and validating transcripts
 - [cmd2.utils](./utils.md) - various utility classes and functions

cmd2/transcript.py

@@ -78,5 +78,4 @@ integrate with any specific event loop is beyond the scope of this documentation
 running in this fashion comes with several disadvantages, including:
 
 - Requires the developer to write more code
-- Does not support transcript testing
 - Does not allow commands at invocation via command-line arguments

docs/api/index.md

@@ -152,7 +152,6 @@ The last thing you'll notice is that we used the `self.poutput()` method to disp
 
 1.  Allows the user to redirect output to a text file or pipe it to a shell process
 1.  Gracefully handles `BrokenPipeError` exceptions for redirected output
-1.  Makes the output show up in a [transcript](../features/transcripts.md)
 1.  Honors the setting to [strip embedded ANSI sequences](../features/settings.md#allow_style)
     (typically used for background and foreground colors)