On 9/16/07, <b class="gmail_sendername">Mark Van De Vyver</b> <<a href="mailto:mvyver@gmail.com">mvyver@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<div><span class="gmail_quote"></span><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
Hi,<br>On 9/17/07, David Chelimsky <<a href="mailto:dchelimsky@gmail.com">dchelimsky@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br>> On 9/16/07, s.ross <<a href="mailto:cwdinfo@gmail.com">cwdinfo@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br>> > While the spirit of BDD is to spec first and code second, many of us
<br>> > have legacy code. Worse, some of us have legacy code without very<br>> > good coverage. Recognizing that *I* have such code, I created a<br>> > script that grinds through your .rb files and creates placeholder
<br>> > specs for each public method.<br>> ><br>> > While it is more sensible to spec behavior of code function than of<br>> > individual methods, this tool can help jump start a transition to<br>> > that wonderful place.
<br>><br>> Hi Steve,<br>><br>> There are tools that will do this for you on java projects and in<br>> nearly every case that I've seen them used, the result has been 100<br>> line test methods, one per object method, that take the object through
<br>> multiple states, become impossible to understand, and often just get<br>> commented out.<br>><br>> Worse, even though you sell it as a tool for dealing with legacy code<br>> (code without tests), it will end up becoming the tool people use and,
<br>> even worse than that, they'll think it's BDD because it creates specs<br>> and not tests.<br>><br>> I beg you (I'm on my knees as I'm writing this) to throw this<br>> manuscript in the fire now!
<br><br>Hmm, I've never heard of this approach (burning stuff) ending in joy...<br>Perhaps what you'd like is a one line comment to be prepended to each<br>spec file pointing to spec best/good practice?<br>I'd nominate someone's(;) ) 'One expectation per example' page:
<br><a href="http://rubyurl.com/2jw">http://rubyurl.com/2jw</a><br>For example:<br># Visit the following page for an excellent illustration of how to specify code:<br># <a href="http://rubyurl.com/2jw">http://rubyurl.com/2jw
</a><br><br>Or, you might prefer that any newbie sees that for each method there<br>are multiple 'it's' prepared? Or maybe the template pending text<br>should read:<br>"should specify one expectation per example"
<br><br>Given these are just clutter things for some expert who is extending<br>existing code using a BDD approach, and they just want a skeleton of<br>'what's in there', you might ask for an '-e'xpert switch that turns
<br>these defaults off.<br><br>Would that advance anything?<br><br>My 2c.</blockquote><div><br>Hey,<br><br>Just joined the list less than an hour ago, but I've been using RSpec consistently since May. This looks like an interesting topic, and thought I'd chime in. I'm currently working with a crapload of legacy code. But it's not in Ruby. It's in Visual Basic. Not quite the same issue, but similar in some ways. For the most part, I'm completely ignoring all the old code. The business logic, the part of the code that actually matters, is what I try to fish out, and run tests against. If that legacy code is just presentation/controller/database logic, don't loose sleep over it. But don't take my word for it. Here's a few other opinions:
<br><br><a href="http://www.slideshare.net/rabble/testing-legacy-rails-apps/">http://www.slideshare.net/rabble/testing-legacy-rails-apps/</a><br><br>Not sure who this guy is, but I guess this was presented at RailsConf '07. He suggests just testing when bugs are found, or when refactoring needs to be done. Otherwise, you might waste your time.
<br><br><a href="http://gilesbowkett.blogspot.com/2007/08/getting-legacy-code-under-test.html">http://gilesbowkett.blogspot.com/2007/08/getting-legacy-code-under-test.html</a><br><br>My boy Giles Bowkett has a completed opposite take: Do a manual "heckle" on all that legacy code, and find out what's necessary and what's not. I probably wouldn't bother doing this by hand, but if you want something more solid that just fishing out bugs, I'd suppose this would work.
<br><br>-Rob<br> </div><br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">> FWIW,<br>> David<br>><br>> > Comments welcome (and please be kind about the
<br>> > code -- I know it needs refactoring :).<br>> ><br>> > svn:<br>> ><br>> > <a href="http://svn.calicowebdev.com/rspec_todo/trunk">http://svn.calicowebdev.com/rspec_todo/trunk</a><br>> >
<br>> > Excerpt from the readme:<br>> ><br>> > Usage is:<br>> ><br>> > ruby spec_todo.rb <options> <files><br>> ><br>> > Options are:<br>> ><br>> > -m -- Wrap each file's spec in a module
<br>> ><br>> > -u -- Use "it" with a block and a pending method rather than a "it"<br>> ><br>> ><br>> > So, for example, I might use it as follows:<br>> ><br>> > ruby spec_todo.rb app/models/* app/controllers/*
<br>> ><br>> > Here is a brief example of the output of this tool:<br>> ><br>> ><br>> > #------------------------------------------------------------<br>> > # File: app/controllers/contact_controller_spec.rb
<br>> > #------------------------------------------------------------<br>> ><br>> > require File.dirname(__FILE__) + '/../spec_helper'<br>> ><br>> > describe "A ContactController" do
<br>> > it "should do something sensible with index."<br>> > it "should do something sensible with thank_you."<br>> > end<br>> ><br>> > _______________________________________________
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