Hi,

I agree with everything you say. My initial attempt started from a 'path of least resistance' conceptual framework, in terms of keeping the testing as simple as possible, with the intent to make changes as encountered. This did not last long as I encountered when running the test plan script for freesurfer the very problems you describe: freesurfer has default data types (base64 gzipped), and doesnt track the format read as input (so cant easily 'echo' it as output).

So I will modify the test plan doc to describe the allowable variances you mention.

Nick