Situation where programmatic @Covers could be used in PHPUnit

StringTest.php

<?php

namespace Typhoon\Type;

class StringTest extends \Typhoon\Test\TypeTestCase
{
  protected function typeFixture()
  {
    return new String;
  }

  protected function expectedString()
  {
    return 'string';
  }

  public function validValues()
  {
    return array(
      array('string'),                  // string
    );
  }
  
  public function invalidValues()
  {
    return array(
      array(null),                      // null
      array(true),                      // boolean
      array(1),                         // integer
      array(.1),                        // float
      array(array()),                   // array
      array(new \stdClass),             // object
      array(function(){}),              // closure
      array($this->resourceFixture()),  // resource
    );
  }
  
  // methods below must be manually overridden to implement @covers
  
  /**
   * @covers \Typhoon\Type\String::string
   * @group typhoon_types
   */
  public function testString() { parent::testString(); }
  
  /**
   * @covers \Typhoon\Type\String::check
   * @dataProvider validValues
   * @group typhoon_types
   */
  public function testCheckPass($value) { parent::testCheckPass($value); }
  
  /**
   * @covers \Typhoon\Type\String::check
   * @dataProvider invalidValues
   * @group typhoon_types
   */
  public function testCheckFailure($value) { parent::testCheckFailure($value); }
}

TypeTestCase.php

<?php

namespace Typhoon\Test;

abstract class TypeTestCase extends \PHPUnit_Framework_TestCase
{
  protected function tearDown()
  {
    if ($this->_resource) fclose($this->_resource);
  }

  /**
   * @group typhoon_types
   */
  public function testString()
  {
    $this->assertEquals($this->expectedString(), $this->typeFixture()->string());
  }
  
  /**
   * @dataProvider validValues
   * @group typhoon_types
   */
  public function testCheckPass($value)
  {
    $this->assertTrue($this->typeFixture()->check($value));
  }
  
  /**
   * @dataProvider invalidValues
   * @group typhoon_types
   */
  public function testCheckFailure($value)
  {
    $this->assertFalse($this->typeFixture()->check($value));
  }
  
  /**
   * @return resource
   */
  protected function resourceFixture()
  {
    if (!$this->_resource) $this->_resource = fopen(__FILE__, 'rb');
    
    return $this->_resource;
  }
  
  /**
   * @return \Typhoon\Type
   */
  abstract protected function typeFixture();
  
  /**
   * @return string
   */
  abstract protected function expectedString();
  
  /**
   * @return array
   */
  abstract public function validValues();
  
  /**
   * @return array
   */
  abstract public function invalidValues();
  
  /**
   * @var resource
   */
  private $_resource;
}