[RFC] Go-Gno testing framework

[leohhhn]

Description

This issue is designed to discuss an all-in-one Go testing framework for Gno. The idea came to me while I was writing a refactor of the gnoblog-cli, a Go tool that parses README files and uploads them to a Gno chain.

The issue I came across was the following: how can I write a fully local integration test, which will allow me to talk to a real Gno node, deploy Gno code on it as part of setting up the testing environment, run functions on the packages & realms deployed, and assert expected results?

This framework would need to expose a certain API that would allow the developer to:

• Run an in memory node
• Programmatically deploy local code to the node
• Programmatically modify the execution context of GnoVM in the node, ie block height, the OrigSend value, caller address, etc
• Possibly expose more helpers, such as impersonating keypairs during tests, etc. Specifically, the realm that I was trying to test has a hardcoded address in which the aforementioned helper would be useful.
• Possibly load the examples folder remotely somehow.

One of the Ethereum development frameworks, Hardhat, does basically this, but for the EVM & JS/TS.

After talking with @deelawn I believe that currently what I am trying to do is not possible with txtar, as txtar cannot run arbitrary CLI commands (ie the binary of gnoblog-cli), and some workarounds have been suggested but are still just workarounds.

This can be a critically useful effort for improving the UX of testing Gno code - and I believe this functionality can be packaged into a single library that would expose all of the needed things. Possibly we can use the in memory node + gnoclient to achieve this.

I'm looking for comments on whether or not people think this is useful, possible, and achievable in the near future.

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