[rspec-devel] [Proposed Refactoring] - Current ExampleSpace class subclasses

[David Chelimsky]

On 8/21/07, Jim Deville <james.deville at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> >
> >>>> It would be kinda nice if there were a good plugin architecture
> >>>> to either
> >>>> Test::Unit or Rspec.
> >
> > That's a really good idea---my work colleagues and I could make our
> > current hacks a little more future-proof, and the folks who (for some
> > reason) like Test::Unit can find a way to make the two play nicely
> > together.
> >
>
> I just wish I knew more about both projects internals to do something
> about it. Still might be worth a try, though.
>
> > I guess I just don't understand the recent rash of "we're abandoning
> > RSpec" or "we're coding the next great RSpec alternative" blog posts.
> > I suppose software inevitably runs into things it just can't do well
> > as its user base increases.
> >
>
> For me, I am a big supporter of RSpec and BDD, but I have trouble
> explaining why I like it so much more than Test::Unit to other
> people. I also have a co-worker who doubts the benefits of using
> mocks to isolate the tests.

Mocking has been around a lot longer than BDD and there is a wealth of
literature on why mocking is good and why, to those who think so, it
is bad.

> He mainly wonders why we are duplicating
> our effort by doing Unit tests and Integration tests.

The really difficult thing to get across about mocking, and about TDD
in general, is that it is a process, not an end result. Duplication
between Programmer Tests (what you're calling Unit Tests) and Customer
Tests (what you're calling Integration Tests) is temporal - there are
moments in time when there is duplication and then, because we're
refactoring relentlessly, that duplication goes away. That's because
when we're refactoring we're not changing the system requirements as
expressed in the Customer Tests, but we are changing the granular
requirements of individual objects, as expressed in the Programmer
Tests.

This all make sense?


> I am in the odd
> position of being one of the most knowledgeble Ruby/RSpec coders at
> my job, but I am the least experienced in OO Design, TDD/BDD and
> Agile processes. I wonder if a little more push on the BDD ideas
> would help build faith in the RSpec framework and techniques.
>
> > But for us, over a year after we started looking at this thing, the
> > bloom is still firmly on the rose.
> >
> > --Ian
> > _______________________________________________
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>
> Jim
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