Remove the Transcript Testing feature

.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
 

docs/api/index.md

@@ -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

docs/examples/alternate_event_loops.md

@@ -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/examples/getting_started.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)
 

docs/features/history.md

@@ -167,20 +167,6 @@ text file:
 
     (Cmd) history :5 -o history.txt
 
-The `history` command can also save both the commands and their output to a text file. This is
-called a transcript. See [Transcripts](./transcripts.md) for more information on how transcripts
-work, and what you can use them for. To create a transcript use the `-t` or `--transcription`
-option:
-
-    (Cmd) history 2:3 --transcript transcript.txt
-
-The `--transcript` option implies `--run`: the commands must be re-run in order to capture their
-output to the transcript file.
-
-!!! warning
-
-    Unlike the `-o`/`--output-file` option, the `-t`/`--transcript` option will actually run the selected history commands again. This is necessary for creating a transcript file since the history saves the commands themselves but does not save their output. Please note that a side-effect of this is that the commands will appear again at the end of the history.
-
 The last action the history command can perform is to clear the command history using `-c` or
 `--clear`:
 
@@ -189,11 +175,11 @@ The last action the history command can perform is to clear the command history
 In addition to these five actions, the `history` command also has some options to control how the
 output is formatted. With no arguments, the `history` command displays the command number before
 each command. This is great when displaying history to the screen because it gives you an easy
-reference to identify previously entered commands. However, when creating a script or a transcript,
-the command numbers would prevent the script from loading properly. The `-s` or `--script` option
-instructs the `history` command to suppress the line numbers. This option is automatically set by
-the `--output-file`, `--transcript`, and `--edit` options. If you want to output the history
-commands with line numbers to a file, you can do it with output redirection:
+reference to identify previously entered commands. However, when creating a script, the command
+numbers would prevent the script from loading properly. The `-s` or `--script` option instructs the
+`history` command to suppress the line numbers. This option is automatically set by the
+`--output-file` and `--edit` options. If you want to output the history commands with line numbers
+to a file, you can do it with output redirection:
 
     (Cmd) history 1:4 > history.txt
 

docs/features/hooks.md

@@ -74,7 +74,6 @@ loop behavior:
 
 - `allow_cli_args` - allows commands to be specified on the operating system command line which are
   executed before the command processing loop begins
-- `transcript_files` - see [Transcripts](./transcripts.md) for more information
 - `startup_script` - run a script on initialization. See [Scripting](./scripting.md) for more
   information
 

docs/features/index.md

@@ -29,6 +29,5 @@
 - [Startup Commands](startup_commands.md)
 - [Table Creation](table_creation.md)
 - [Theme](theme.md)
-- [Transcripts](transcripts.md)
 <!--intro-end-->
 </div>

docs/features/os.md

@@ -77,23 +77,23 @@ user to enter commands, which are then executed by your program.
 You may want to execute commands in your program without prompting the user for any input. There are
 several ways you might accomplish this task. The easiest one is to pipe commands and their arguments
 into your program via standard input. You don't need to do anything to your program in order to use
-this technique. Here's a demonstration using the `examples/transcript_example.py` included in the
+this technique. Here's a demonstration using the `examples/cmd_as_argument.py` included in the
 source code of `cmd2`:
 
-    $ echo "speak -p some words" | python examples/transcript_example.py
+    $ echo "speak -p some words" | python examples/cmd_as_argument.py
     omesay ordsway
 
 Using this same approach you could create a text file containing the commands you would like to run,
 one command per line in the file. Say your file was called `somecmds.txt`. To run the commands in
 the text file using your `cmd2` program (from a Windows command prompt):
 
-    c:\cmd2> type somecmds.txt | python.exe examples/transcript_example.py
+    c:\cmd2> type somecmds.txt | python.exe examples/cmd_as_argument.py
     omesay ordsway
 
 By default, `cmd2` programs also look for commands passed as arguments from the operating system
 shell, and execute those commands before entering the command loop:
 
-    $ python examples/transcript_example.py help
+    $ python examples/cmd_as_argument.py help
 
     Documented Commands
     ───────────────────
@@ -107,8 +107,8 @@ example, you might have a command inside your `cmd2` program which itself accept
 maybe even option strings. Say you wanted to run the `speak` command from the operating system
 shell, but have it say it in pig latin:
 
-    $ python examples/transcript_example.py speak -p hello there
-    python transcript_example.py speak -p hello there
+    $ python examples/cmd_as_argument.py speak -p hello there
+    python cmd_as_argument.py speak -p hello there
     usage: speak [-h] [-p] [-s] [-r REPEAT] words [words ...]
     speak: error: the following arguments are required: words
     *** Unknown syntax: -p
@@ -131,7 +131,7 @@ Check the source code of this example, especially the `main()` function, to see
 Alternatively you can simply wrap the command plus arguments in quotes (either single or double
 quotes):
 
-    $ python examples/transcript_example.py "speak -p hello there"
+    $ python examples/cmd_as_argument.py "speak -p hello there"
     ellohay heretay
     (Cmd)
 
@@ -157,6 +157,6 @@ quits while returning an exit code:
 
 Here is another example using `quit`:
 
-    $ python examples/transcript_example.py "speak -p hello there" quit
+    $ python examples/cmd_as_argument.py "speak -p hello there" quit
     ellohay heretay
     $