[Webtest] [dev] refactoring

[Dierk Koenig]

> > In both cases the extra classes are not for implementation needs but
> > for communication purposes.
> 
> what do you mean? For me steps are running in a... webtest, The 
> Context just represents... the webtest that is running.

It encapsulates information that a step works upon and passes to
the next trailing step, e.g. the last retrieved page.
This is a subtle difference to representing the step itself.

The class serves an implementation and a communication 
purpose.

> > Context is what steps are supposed to share. 
> > I would rather like to keep that.
> > It would also affect a lot of custom steps if we remove that...
> 
> I can understand that Context removal could imply numerous 
> changes 

> (time for a 2.x serie?) 

not before we have a 1.7 final :-)

> in custom steps but as far as 
> I remember you said once, that what matters is just that the 
> usage in ant files doesn't get broken. Isn't it ;-).

I cannot remember everything I said once.
Not breaking the tests as defined in the xml is a must.
Not breaking custom steps is also valuable. We shouldn't do so
without very good reason.
Note that changing doExecute(context) to doExecute() would 
break all steps.

> Concerning Engine: have you really custom steps that would be 
> deeply affected if it gets removed? 

No, Engine doesn't affect the custom steps. That point only
concerned Context.

cheers
Mittie