[Rspec-devel] define_instance_method, stub_with, and mock_with

[Jay Levitt]

David Astels wrote:
> On 27-Aug-06, at 4:51 PM, David Chelimsky wrote:
>> I also
>> have yet to see a case where   using partial mocks is a better
>> decision than improving the decoupling in the system under test.
> I agree.  Partial mocks can get very confusing, very easily.

OK, but what about partial stubs?  It's particularly handy to stub out 
Time.now, f'rinstance, so that all your expectations run at a particular 
"now", matching up with timestamps in fixtures, etc.  There's no way to 
do that via an API that requires you to create new instance objects for 
your mocks.  And I don't imagine you're suggesting that I decouple an 
app by asking for "time_handler" at startup...

Also, FWIW, it sounds like Mocha is likely to become included in (or at 
least used by) Rails core:

http://rubyforge.org/pipermail/mocha-developer/2006-September/000017.html

I guess, depending on your viewpoint, that's either good for, bad for, 
or irrelevant to this discussion and rspec in general.

Jay Levitt