[rspec-users] Reason for _spec.rb convention

[Ashley Moran]

On 3 Sep 2007, at 13:47, Wincent Colaiuta wrote:

> I know it's very application-specific, but one good reason for this
> is that it makes finding files in TextMate much easier when you hit
> Command-T; you type a few characters and at a glance can distinguish
> between spec and implementation files.

This makes sense!  However, after a bit of testing, it turns out  
TextMate identifies the shortest unique path, so if you have  
address.rb in app/models and spec/models, it displays this in the Cmd- 
T window:

   address.rb – app/models
   address.rb – spec/models

TextMate's interface never ceases to amaze me.

I suppose also you could set up a spec runner to skip files not  
ending _spec.rb in case you wanted support code in the spec folders  
(not sure if this is a good idea in practice or not, just occurred to  
me).



On 3 Sep 2007, at 13:50, Scott Taylor wrote:
> Personally, I think the only reason we keep it around is for
> Autotest, which maps xyz_spec.rb => xyz.rb.  But - Feel free to name
> your specs however you choose.

Not used Autotest - I'm sure it could be made to map xyz.rb => xyz.rb  
too though.


This satisfied my curiosity anyway - someone mentioned it on nitro- 
general and I realised I didn't know where _spec came from.

Thanks
Ashley