Proposal for development tests

devtest.png

devtests.qmd

---
format: revealjs
---


## Proposal

Support two testing tiers in testthat:

  1. ### Release tests 📦 
     - Should always work
     - Used downstream to verify package is functional
  2. ### Development tests 👩‍💻
     - Intended for developers and CI
     - May require special tooling/setup
     - Could be flaky

## Why this is helpful

Because `skip_on_cran()` is convoluted and confusing.


```r
# does the test run?
test_that({
  skip_on_cran()
  expect_something()
})
```
::: {.incremental}

  - Logic: *if we are NOT __NOT_CRAN__ the test does NOT run* 🤯
  - You are CRAN by default (except in r-lib/actions, RStudio, ...)
  - What about Debian, r-universe, BioC, anaconda, etc?
  - Confusing and looks like "CRAN cheating"
:::


## Testthat PR#1988

![](devtest.png)

 - Explicitly opt-in to developer tests using `dev-test` prefix.
 - No "special casing cran" needed in test code
 - Encourage robust releases tests