lookout 2.1.4 → 2.2.0
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- data/README +537 -521
- data/lib/lookout.rb +0 -9
- data/lib/lookout/diff/algorithms/difflib/position.rb +1 -1
- data/lib/lookout/equalities/standarderror.rb +9 -3
- data/lib/lookout/expectations.rb +4 -19
- data/lib/lookout/expectations/line.rb +29 -0
- data/lib/lookout/rake/tasks/gem.rb +2 -2
- data/lib/lookout/rake/tasks/test/loader.rb +14 -11
- data/lib/lookout/results.rb +17 -3
- data/lib/lookout/results/error/exception.rb +1 -3
- data/lib/lookout/results/error/exception/backtrace.rb +17 -8
- data/lib/lookout/results/unsuccessful.rb +1 -7
- data/lib/lookout/runners.rb +1 -0
- data/lib/lookout/runners/console.rb +25 -8
- data/lib/lookout/runners/trackers.rb +5 -0
- data/lib/lookout/runners/trackers/failure.rb +14 -0
- data/lib/lookout/ui/console.rb +6 -33
- data/lib/lookout/ui/silent.rb +1 -1
- data/lib/lookout/version.rb +1 -1
- data/test/unit/lookout.rb +0 -4
- data/test/unit/lookout/expectations.rb +0 -38
- data/test/unit/lookout/expectations/line.rb +29 -0
- data/test/unit/lookout/results/error/exception/backtrace.rb +20 -0
- data/test/unit/lookout/results/unsuccessful.rb +0 -15
- data/test/unit/lookout/runners/trackers/failure.rb +30 -0
- data/test/unit/lookout/ui/{formatters/exception.rb → console.rb} +0 -1
- metadata +397 -408
- data/lib/lookout/results/instance.rb +0 -17
- data/test/unit/lookout/ui/formatters/exception/backtrace.rb +0 -10
data/README
CHANGED
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
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Lookout
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Lookout is a lightweight unit testing framework. Tests (expectations) can be
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written as follows
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Lookout is a lightweight unit testing framework. Tests (expectations) can be
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written as follows
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expect 2 do
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1 + 1
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@@ -11,635 +11,651 @@ written as follows
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Object.invalid_method_call
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end
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Lookout is designed to encourage – force, even – unit testing best practices
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such as
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Lookout is designed to encourage – force, even – unit testing best practices
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such as
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• Setting up only one expectation per test
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• Not setting expectations on non-public APIs
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• Test isolation
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This is done by
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This is done by
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• Only allowing one expectation to be set per test
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• Providing no (additonal) way of accessing private state
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• Providing no setup and teardown methods, nor a method of providing test
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helpers
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Other important points are
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Other important points are
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• A unified syntax for setting up both state-based and behavior-based
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expectations
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• A focus on code readability by providing no mechanism for describing an
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expectation other than the code in the expectation itself
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The way Lookout works has been heavily influenced by
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Fields
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based at Subversion
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work past that revision are due to
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The way Lookout works has been heavily influenced by expectations¹, by
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{Jay Fields}². The code base was once also heavily based on expectations¹,
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based at Subversion {revision 76}³. A lot has happened since then and all of
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the work past that revision are due to {Nikolai Weibull}⁴.
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¹ Get more information on the expectations library at http://expectations.rubyforge.org/
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² Read Jay Fields’s blog at http://blog.jayfields.com/
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³ Review Lookout revision 76 at https://github.com/now/lookout/commit/537bedf3e5b3eb4b31c066b3266f42964ac35ebe
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⁴ Visit Nikolai Weibull’s home page at http://bitwi.se/
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§ Installation
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Install Lookout with
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% gem install lookout
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% gem install lookout
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§ Usage
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Lookout allows you to set expectations on an object’s state or behavior.
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We’ll begin by looking at state expectations and then take a look at
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expectations on behavior.
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begin by looking at state expectations and then take a look at expectations on
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behavior.
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§ Expectations on State
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An expectation can be made on the result of a computation:
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expect 2 do
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1 + 1
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end
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end
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Most objects, in fact, have their state expectations checked by invoking `#==`
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on the expected value with the result as its argument.
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Checking that a result is within a given range is also simple:
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expect 0.099..0.101 do
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0.4 - 0.3
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end
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Here, the more general `#===` is being used on the `Range`.
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`Strings` of course match against `Strings`:
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expect 'ab' do
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'abc'[0..1]
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end
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Most objects, in fact, have their state expectations checked by invoking
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‹#==› on the expected value with the result as its argument.
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Checking that a result is within a given range is also simple:
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expect 0.099..0.101 do
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0.4 - 0.3
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end
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Ruby parses `expect /…/`.)
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Here, the more general ‹#===› is being used on the ‹Range›.
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`Module`.
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‹Strings› of course match against ‹Strings›:
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expect 'ab' do
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'abc'[0..1]
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end
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also modules):
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but we can also match a ‹String› against a ‹Regexp›:
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expect %r{a substring} do
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'a string with a substring'
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end
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(Note the use of ‹%r{…}› to avoid warnings that will be generated when
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Ruby parses ‹expect /…/›.)
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end
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Checking that the result includes a certain module is done by expecting the
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‹Module›.
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expect Enumerable do
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[]
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end
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This, due to the nature of Ruby, of course also works for classes (as
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they are also modules):
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expect String do
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'a string'
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end
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nil
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end
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Results equaling `true` or `false` are slightly different:
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expect TrueClass do
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true
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end
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expect FalseClass do
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false
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end
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This doesn’t hinder us from expecting the actual ‹Module› itself:
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expect Enumerable do
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Enumerable
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end
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As you may have figured out yourself, this is accomplished by first
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trying ‹#==› and, if it returns ‹false›, then trying ‹#===› on the
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expected ‹Module›. This is also true of ‹Ranges› and ‹Regexps›.
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io.puts 'abc', 'def'
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end
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Truthfulness is expected with ‹true› and ‹false›:
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expect true do
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1
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end
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expect false do
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nil
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end
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Object.no_method
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end
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Results equaling ‹true› or ‹false› are slightly different:
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expect TrueClass do
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true
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end
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expect FalseClass do
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false
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end
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The rationale for this is that you should only care if the result of a
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computation evaluates to a value that Ruby considers to be either true or
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false, not the exact literals ‹true› or ‹false›.
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raise StandardError.new('message')
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end
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Expecting output on an IO object is also common:
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(
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this is a bug, but I’ll leave that up to the reader to decide.)
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expect output("abc\ndef\n") do |io|
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io.puts 'abc', 'def'
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end
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This can be used to capture the output of a formatter that takes an
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output object as a parameter.
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end
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You should always be expecting errors from – and in, but that’s a
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different story – your code:
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expect NoMethodError do
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Object.no_method
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end
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155
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end
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Often, not only the type of the error, but its description, is important
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to check:
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expect StandardError.new('message') do
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raise StandardError.new('message')
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end
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process.finished = true
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end
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As with ‹Strings›, ‹Regexps› can be used to check the error description:
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expect StandardError.new(/mess/) do
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raise StandardError.new('message')
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end
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(Note that some of Ruby’s built-in error classes have slightly
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complicated behavior and will not allow you to pass a ‹Regexp› as a
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parameter. ‹NameError› is such a class. This may warrant further
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investigation into whether or not this is a bug, but I’ll leave that up
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to the reader to decide.)
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Lookout further provides a fluent way of setting up expectations on
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boolean results. An object can “be”
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expect Class.new{ attr_accessor :running; }.new.to.be.running do |process|
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process.running = true
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end
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or “not be”
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183
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expect Class.new{ attr_accessor :running; }.new.not.to.be.running do |process|
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process.running = false
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end
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or to “have”
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189
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210
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expect Class.new{ attr_accessor :finished; }.new.to.have.finished do |process|
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process.finished = true
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end
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193
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212
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call
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or “not have”
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195
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-
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216
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* Any method whose name ends with `?`
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expect Class.new{ attr_accessor :finished; }.new.not.to.have.finished do |process|
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process.finished = false
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end
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199
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|
220
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|
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that follow it in the list. `#Be` and `#Have` must be followed by a call to a
|
222
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method.
|
200
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On the same note
|
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201
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|
224
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|
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expect nil.to.be.nil?
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203
|
|
226
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-
|
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sure that they are.
|
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and
|
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205
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|
229
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|
230
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be:
|
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expect Object.new.not.to.be.nil?
|
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207
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|
232
|
-
|
233
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phone.dial('2125551212')
|
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phone.dial('2125551212')
|
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end
|
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As not every boolean method “is” or “has” you can even
|
236
209
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|
237
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|
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anything unless you tell it to. We tell it to expect to receive a call to
|
239
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`#dail` with `'2125551212'` as its formal argument, and we expect it to receive
|
240
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it twice. The mock object is then passed in to the block so that the
|
241
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expectations placed upon it can be fulfilled.
|
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|
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Sometimes we only want to make sure that a method is called in the way that we
|
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expect it to be, but we don’t care if any other methods are called on the
|
245
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object. A stub object, created with `#stub`, expects any method and returns a
|
246
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stub object that, again, expects any method, and thus fits the bill.
|
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-
|
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expect stub.to.receive.dial('2125551212').twice do |phone|
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phone.dial('2125551212')
|
250
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phone.hangup
|
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phone.dial('2125551212')
|
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end
|
210
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expect nil.to.respond_to? :nil?
|
253
211
|
|
254
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|
212
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The rules here are that all ‹Objects› respond to ‹#to›. After ‹#to› you
|
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may call
|
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|
256
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|
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|
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• ‹#not›
|
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• ‹#be›
|
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• ‹#have›
|
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• Any method whose name ends with ‹?›
|
260
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|
261
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|
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A call to ‹#not› must be followed by a call to one of the three
|
221
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alternatives that follow it in the list. ‹#Be› and ‹#have› must be
|
222
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followed by a call to a method.
|
262
223
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|
263
|
-
|
264
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a = 'abc'
|
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stub(a).to_str{ 'def' }
|
266
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a.to_str
|
267
|
-
end
|
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§ Expectations on Behavior
|
268
225
|
|
269
|
-
|
226
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We expect our objects to be on their best behavior. Lookout allows you
|
227
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to make sure that they are.
|
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228
|
|
271
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-
|
272
|
-
|
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end
|
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Mocks let use verify that a method is called in the way that we expect it
|
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to be:
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the method. Let’s look at this formal specification in more detail.
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expect mock.to.receive.dial('2125551212').twice do |phone|
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phone.dial('2125551212')
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phone.dial('2125551212')
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end
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Here, ‹#mock› creates a mock object, an object that doesn’t respond to
|
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anything unless you tell it to. We tell it to expect to receive a call
|
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to ‹#dail› with ‹'2125551212'› as its formal argument, and we expect it
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to receive it twice. The mock object is then passed in to the block so
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that the expectations placed upon it can be fulfilled.
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Sometimes we only want to make sure that a method is called in the way
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that we expect it to be, but we don’t care if any other methods are
|
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called on the object. A stub object, created with ‹#stub›, expects any
|
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method and returns a stub object that, again, expects any method, and
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thus fits the bill.
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expect stub.to.receive.dial('2125551212').twice do |phone|
|
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phone.dial('2125551212')
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phone.hangup
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phone.dial('2125551212')
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end
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We can also use stubs without any expectations on them:
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expect 3 do
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s = stub(:a => 1, :b => 2)
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s.a + s.b
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end
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and we can stub out a specific method on an object:
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expect 'def' do
|
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a = 'abc'
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stub(a).to_str{ 'def' }
|
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a.to_str
|
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end
|
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|
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|
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so the previous example expects a call to `#a` with 1, 2, or the Range 1..2 as
|
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an argument on `m`.
|
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You don’t have to use a mock object to verify that a method is called:
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expect Object.to.receive.deal do
|
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Object.deal
|
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end
|
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|
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|
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As you have figured out by now, the expected method call is set up by
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calling ‹#receive› after ‹#to›. ‹#Receive› is followed by a call to the
|
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method to expect with any expected arguments. The body of the mocked
|
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method can be given as the block to the method. Finally, an expected
|
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invocation count may follow the method. Let’s look at this formal
|
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|
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specification in more detail.
|
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|
|
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|
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|
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The expected method arguments may be given in a variety of ways. Let’s
|
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introduce them by giving some examples:
|
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|
|
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|
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|
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|
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|
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expect mock.to.receive.a do |m|
|
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…
|
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|
+
end
|
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|
|
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|
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|
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|
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Here, the method ‹#a› must be called with any number of arguments. It
|
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may be called any number of times, but it must be called at least once.
|
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|
|
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|
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|
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…
|
325
|
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end
|
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|
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If a method must receive exactly one argument, you can use ‹arg›:
|
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|
|
327
|
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|
295
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+
expect mock.to.receive.a(arg) do |m|
|
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|
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…
|
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|
+
end
|
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298
|
|
329
|
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|
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|
-
this deficiency you have to use the `#yield` method:
|
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If a method must receive a specific argument, you can use that argument:
|
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|
|
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|
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|
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|
-
|
334
|
-
|
301
|
+
expect mock.to.receive.a(1..2) do |m|
|
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|
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…
|
303
|
+
end
|
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304
|
|
336
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|
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-
|
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|
-
|
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yielded.
|
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|
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The same matching rules apply for arguments as they do for state
|
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|
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expectations, so the previous example expects a call to ‹#a› with 1, 2,
|
307
|
+
or the Range 1..2 as an argument on ‹m›.
|
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308
|
|
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|
-
|
342
|
-
|
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|
+
If a method must be invoked without any arguments you can use
|
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|
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‹without_arguments›:
|
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|
|
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|
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|
345
|
-
|
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|
-
|
347
|
-
end
|
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|
-
o.inject{ |i, a| i + a }
|
349
|
-
end
|
312
|
+
expect mock.to.receive.a(without_arguments) do |m|
|
313
|
+
…
|
314
|
+
end
|
350
315
|
|
351
|
-
|
352
|
-
“at least once” isn’t good enough. The following expectations are possible
|
353
|
-
|
354
|
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* `#at_most_once`
|
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|
-
* `#once`
|
356
|
-
* `#at_least_once`
|
357
|
-
* `#twice`
|
358
|
-
|
359
|
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And, for a given `N`,
|
360
|
-
|
361
|
-
* `#at_most(N)`
|
362
|
-
* `#exactly(N)`
|
363
|
-
* `#at_least(N)`
|
364
|
-
|
365
|
-
Method stubs are another useful thing to have in a unit testing framework.
|
366
|
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Sometimes you need to override a method that does something a test shouldn’t
|
367
|
-
do, like access and alter bank accounts. We can override – stub out – a method
|
368
|
-
by using the `#stub` method. Let’s assume that we have an `Account` class that
|
369
|
-
has two methods, `#slips` and `#total`. `#Slips` retrieves the bank slips that
|
370
|
-
keep track of your deposits to the `Account` from a database. `#Total` sums
|
371
|
-
the `#slips`. In the following test we want to make sure that `#total` does
|
372
|
-
what it should do without accessing the database. We therefore stub out
|
373
|
-
`#slips` and make it return something that we can easily control.
|
374
|
-
|
375
|
-
expect 6 do |m|
|
376
|
-
account = Account.new
|
377
|
-
stub(account).slips{ [1, 2, 3] }
|
378
|
-
account.total
|
379
|
-
end
|
316
|
+
You can of course use both ‹arg› and actual arguments:
|
380
317
|
|
381
|
-
|
318
|
+
expect mock.to.receive.a(arg, 1, arg) do |m|
|
319
|
+
…
|
320
|
+
end
|
382
321
|
|
383
|
-
|
384
|
-
|
322
|
+
The body of the mock method may be given as the block. Here, calling
|
323
|
+
‹#a› on ‹m› will give the result ‹1›:
|
385
324
|
|
386
|
-
|
387
|
-
|
388
|
-
|
389
|
-
end
|
325
|
+
expect mock.to.receive.a{ 1 } do |m|
|
326
|
+
…
|
327
|
+
end
|
390
328
|
|
391
|
-
|
392
|
-
shouldn’t be doing that anyway. In fact, you should never mock or stub methods
|
393
|
-
on value objects.
|
329
|
+
If no body has been given, the result will be a stub object.
|
394
330
|
|
395
|
-
|
331
|
+
There is a caveat here in that a block can’t yield in Ruby 1.8. To work
|
332
|
+
around this deficiency you have to use the ‹#yield› method:
|
396
333
|
|
397
|
-
|
398
|
-
|
334
|
+
expect mock.to.receive.a.yield(1) do |m|
|
335
|
+
…
|
336
|
+
end
|
399
337
|
|
400
|
-
|
338
|
+
Any number of values to yield upon successive calls may be given. The
|
339
|
+
last value given will be used repeatedly when all preceding values have
|
340
|
+
been consumed. It’s also important to know that values are splatted when
|
341
|
+
they are yielded.
|
401
342
|
|
402
|
-
|
343
|
+
To simulate an ‹#each›-like method you can use ‹#each›. The following
|
344
|
+
horrible example should give you an idea of how to use it.
|
403
345
|
|
404
|
-
|
405
|
-
|
346
|
+
expect Object.new.to.receive.each.each(1, 2, 3) do |o|
|
347
|
+
class << o
|
348
|
+
include Enumerable
|
349
|
+
end
|
350
|
+
o.inject{ |i, a| i + a }
|
351
|
+
end
|
406
352
|
|
407
|
-
|
353
|
+
Invocation count expectations can also be set if the default expectation
|
354
|
+
of “at least once” isn’t good enough. The following expectations are
|
355
|
+
possible
|
408
356
|
|
409
|
-
|
357
|
+
• ‹#at_most_once›
|
358
|
+
• ‹#once›
|
359
|
+
• ‹#at_least_once›
|
360
|
+
• ‹#twice›
|
410
361
|
|
411
|
-
|
362
|
+
And, for a given ‹N›,
|
412
363
|
|
413
|
-
|
414
|
-
|
364
|
+
• ‹#at_most(N)›
|
365
|
+
• ‹#exactly(N)›
|
366
|
+
• ‹#at_least(N)›
|
415
367
|
|
416
|
-
|
417
|
-
|
418
|
-
|
419
|
-
|
420
|
-
|
421
|
-
|
422
|
-
|
423
|
-
|
424
|
-
|
425
|
-
|
426
|
-
|
427
|
-
function! s:run_test()
|
428
|
-
let test = expand('%')
|
429
|
-
let line = 'LINE=' . line('.')
|
430
|
-
if test =~ '^lib/'
|
431
|
-
let test = substitute(test, '^lib/', 'test/', '')
|
432
|
-
let line = ""
|
433
|
-
endif
|
434
|
-
execute 'make' 'TEST=' . shellescape(test) line
|
435
|
-
endfunction
|
436
|
-
|
437
|
-
Now, pressing `<Leader>M` will either run all tests for a given class, if the
|
438
|
-
implementation file is active, or run the test at or just before the cursor, if
|
439
|
-
the test file is active. This is useful if you’re currently receiving a lot of
|
440
|
-
errors and/or failures and want to focus on those associated with a specific
|
441
|
-
class or on a specific test.
|
442
|
-
|
443
|
-
[Rake]: http://rake.rubyforge.org
|
444
|
-
[RubyGems]: http://rubygems.org
|
445
|
-
|
446
|
-
## Interface Design ##
|
447
|
-
|
448
|
-
The default output of Lookout can Spartanly be described as Spartan. If no
|
449
|
-
errors or failures occur, no output is generated. This is unconventional, as
|
450
|
-
unit testing frameworks tend to dump a lot of information on the user,
|
451
|
-
concerning things such as progress, test count summaries, and flamboyantly
|
452
|
-
colored text telling you that your tests passed. None of this output is
|
453
|
-
needed. Your tests should run fast enough to not require progress reports.
|
454
|
-
The lack of output provides you with the same amount of information as
|
455
|
-
reporting success. Test count summaries are only useful if you’re worried that
|
456
|
-
your tests aren’t being run, but if you worry about that, then providing such
|
457
|
-
output doesn’t really help. Testing your tests requires something beyond
|
458
|
-
reporting some arbitrary count that you would have to verify by hand anyway.
|
459
|
-
|
460
|
-
When errors or failures do occur, however, the relevant information is output
|
461
|
-
in a format that can easily be parsed by an `'errorformat'` for [Vim][] or with
|
462
|
-
[Compilation Mode][] for [Emacs][]. Diffs are generated for Strings, Arrays,
|
463
|
-
Hashes, and I/O.
|
464
|
-
|
465
|
-
[Vim]: http://www.vim.org
|
466
|
-
[Compilation Mode]: http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/CompilationMode
|
467
|
-
[Emacs]: http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/
|
468
|
-
|
469
|
-
## External Design ##
|
470
|
-
|
471
|
-
Let’s now look at some of the points made in the introduction in greater
|
472
|
-
detail.
|
473
|
-
|
474
|
-
Lookout only allows you to set one expectation per test. If you’re testing
|
475
|
-
behavior with a mock, then only one method-invocation expectation can be set.
|
476
|
-
If you’re testing state, then only one result can be verified. It may seem
|
477
|
-
like this would cause unnecessary duplication between tests. While this is
|
478
|
-
certainly a possibility, when you actually begin to try to avoid such
|
479
|
-
duplication you find that you often do so by improving your interfaces. This
|
480
|
-
kind of restriction tends to encourage the use of value objects, which are easy
|
481
|
-
to test, and more focused objects, which require simpler tests, as they have
|
482
|
-
less behavior to test, per method. By keeping your interfaces focused you’re
|
483
|
-
also keeping your tests focused.
|
484
|
-
|
485
|
-
Keeping your tests focused improves, in itself, test isolation, but let’s look
|
486
|
-
at something that hinders it: setup and teardown methods. Most unit testing
|
487
|
-
frameworks encourage test fragmentation by providing setup and teardown
|
488
|
-
methods.
|
489
|
-
|
490
|
-
Setup methods create objects and, perhaps, just their behavior for a set of
|
491
|
-
tests. This means that you have to look in two places to figure out what’s
|
492
|
-
being done in a test. This may work fine for few methods with simple set-ups,
|
493
|
-
but makes things complicated when the number of tests increases and the set-up
|
494
|
-
is complex. Often, each test further adjusts the previously set-up object
|
495
|
-
before performing any verifications, further complicating the process of
|
496
|
-
figuring out what state an object has in a given test.
|
497
|
-
|
498
|
-
Teardown methods clean up after tests, perhaps by removing records from a
|
499
|
-
database or deleting files from the file-system.
|
500
|
-
|
501
|
-
The duplication that setup methods and teardown methods hope to remove is
|
502
|
-
better avoided by improving your interfaces. This can be done by providing
|
503
|
-
better set-up methods for your objects and using idioms such as [Resource
|
504
|
-
Acquisition Is Initialization][] for guaranteed clean-up, test or no test.
|
505
|
-
|
506
|
-
By not using setup and teardown methods we keep everything pertinent to a test
|
507
|
-
in the test itself, thus improving test isolation. (You also won’t [slow down
|
508
|
-
your tests][Broken Test::Unit] by keeping unnecessary state.)
|
509
|
-
|
510
|
-
Most unit test frameworks also allow you to create arbitrary test helper
|
511
|
-
methods. Lookout doesn’t. The same rationale as that that has been
|
512
|
-
crystallized in the preceding paragraphs applies. If you need helpers you’re
|
513
|
-
interface isn’t good enough. It really is as simple as that.
|
514
|
-
|
515
|
-
To clarify: there’s nothing inherently wrong with test helper methods, but they
|
516
|
-
should be general enough that they reside in their own library. The support
|
517
|
-
for mocks in Lookout is provided through a set of test helper methods that make
|
518
|
-
it easier to create mocks than it would have been without them.
|
519
|
-
[Lookout-rack][] is another example of a library providing test helper methods
|
520
|
-
(well, one of method, actually) that are very useful in testing web
|
521
|
-
applications that use [Rack][].
|
522
|
-
|
523
|
-
A final point at which some unit test frameworks try to fragment tests further
|
524
|
-
is documentation. These frameworks provide ways of describing the whats and
|
525
|
-
hows of what’s being tested, the rationale being that this will provide
|
526
|
-
documentation of both the test and the code being tested. Describing how a
|
527
|
-
stack data structure is meant to work is a common example. A stack is,
|
528
|
-
however, a rather simple data structure, so such a description provides little,
|
529
|
-
if any, additional information that can’t be extracted from the implementation
|
530
|
-
and its tests themselves. The implementation and its tests is, in fact, its
|
531
|
-
own best documentation. Taking the points made in the previous paragraphs into
|
532
|
-
account, we should already have simple, self-describing, interfaces that have
|
533
|
-
easily understood tests associated with them. Rationales for the use of a
|
534
|
-
given data structure or system-design design documentation is better suited in
|
535
|
-
separate documentation focused at describing exactly those issues.
|
536
|
-
|
537
|
-
[Resource Acquisition Is Initialization]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resource_Acquisition_Is_Initialization
|
538
|
-
[Broken Test::Unit]: http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2742-the-road-to-faster-tests
|
539
|
-
[Lookout-rack]: http://github.com/now/lookout-rack
|
540
|
-
[Rack]: http://rack.rubyforge.org
|
541
|
-
|
542
|
-
## Internal Design ##
|
543
|
-
|
544
|
-
The internal design of Lookout has had a couple of goals.
|
545
|
-
|
546
|
-
* As few external dependencies as possible
|
547
|
-
* As few internal dependencies as possible
|
548
|
-
* Internal extensibility provides external extensibility
|
549
|
-
* As fast load times as possible
|
550
|
-
* As high a ratio of value objects to mutable objects as possible
|
551
|
-
* Each object must have a simple, obvious name
|
552
|
-
* Use mix-ins, not inheritance for shared behavior
|
553
|
-
* As few responsibilities per object as possible
|
554
|
-
* Optimizing for speed can only be done when you have all the facts
|
555
|
-
|
556
|
-
### External Dependencies ###
|
557
|
-
|
558
|
-
Lookout used to depend on Mocha for mocks and stubs. While benchmarking I
|
559
|
-
noticed that a method in Mocha was taking up more than 300 percent of the
|
560
|
-
runtime. It turned out that Mocha’s method for cleaning up back-traces
|
561
|
-
generated when a mock failed was doing something incredibly stupid:
|
562
|
-
|
563
|
-
backtrace.reject{ |l| Regexp.new(@lib).match(File.expand_path(l)) }
|
564
|
-
|
565
|
-
Here `@lib` is a `String` containing the path to the lib subdirectory in the
|
566
|
-
Mocha installation directory. I reported it, provided a patch five days later,
|
567
|
-
then waited. Nothing happened. 254 days later, according to [Wolfram
|
568
|
-
Alpha][254 days], half of my patch was, apparently – I say “apparently”, as I
|
569
|
-
received no notification – applied. By that time I had replaced the whole
|
570
|
-
mocking-and-stubbing subsystem and dropped the dependency.
|
571
|
-
|
572
|
-
Many Ruby developers claim that Ruby and its gems are too fast-moving for
|
573
|
-
normal package-managing systems to keep up. This is testament to the fact
|
574
|
-
that this isn’t the case and that the real problem is instead related to sloppy
|
575
|
-
practices.
|
576
|
-
|
577
|
-
Please note that I don’t want to single out the Mocha library nor its
|
578
|
-
developers. I only want to provide an example where relying on external
|
579
|
-
dependencies can be “considered harmful”.
|
580
|
-
|
581
|
-
[254 days]: http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=days+between+march+17%2C+2010+and+november+26%2C+2010
|
582
|
-
|
583
|
-
### Internal Dependencies ###
|
584
|
-
|
585
|
-
Lookout has been designed so as to keep each subsystem independent of any
|
586
|
-
other. The diff subsystem is, for example, completely decoupled from any other
|
587
|
-
part of the system as a whole and could be moved into its own library at a time
|
588
|
-
where that would be of interest to anyone. What’s perhaps more interesting is
|
589
|
-
that the diff subsystem is itself very modular. The data passes through a set
|
590
|
-
of filters that depends on what kind of diff has been requested, each filter
|
591
|
-
yielding modified data as it receives it. If you want to read some rather
|
592
|
-
functional Ruby I can highly recommend looking at the code in the
|
593
|
-
`lib/lookout/diff` directory.
|
594
|
-
|
595
|
-
This lookout on the design of the library also makes it easy to extend Lookout.
|
596
|
-
Lookout-rack was, for example, written in about four hours and about 5 of those
|
597
|
-
240 minutes were spent on setting up the interface between the two.
|
598
|
-
|
599
|
-
### Optimizing For Speed ###
|
600
|
-
|
601
|
-
The following paragraph is perhaps a bit personal, but might be interesting
|
602
|
-
nonetheless.
|
603
|
-
|
604
|
-
I’ve always worried about speed. The original Expectations library used
|
605
|
-
`extend` a lot to add new behavior to objects. Expectations, for example, used
|
606
|
-
to hold the result of their execution (what we now term “evaluation”) by being
|
607
|
-
extended by a module representing success, failure, or error. For the longest
|
608
|
-
time I used this same method, worrying about the increased performance cost
|
609
|
-
that creating new objects for results would incur. I finally came to a point
|
610
|
-
where I felt that the code was so simple and clean that rewriting this part of
|
611
|
-
the code for a benchmark wouldn’t take more than perhaps ten minutes. Well,
|
612
|
-
ten minutes later I had my results and they confirmed that creating new objects
|
613
|
-
wasn’t harming performance. I was very pleased.
|
614
|
-
|
615
|
-
### Naming ###
|
616
|
-
|
617
|
-
I hate low lines (underscores). I try to avoid them in method names and I
|
618
|
-
always avoid them in file names. Since the current “best practice” in the Ruby
|
619
|
-
community is to put `BeginEndStorage` in a file called `begin_end_storage.rb`,
|
620
|
-
I only name constants using a single noun. This has had the added benefit that
|
621
|
-
classes seem to have acquired less behavior, as using a single noun doesn’t
|
622
|
-
allow you to tack on additional behavior without questioning if it’s really
|
623
|
-
appropriate to do so, given the rather limited range of interpretation for that
|
624
|
-
noun. It also seems to encourage the creation of value objects, as something
|
625
|
-
named `Range` feels a lot more like a value than `BeginEndStorage`. (To reach
|
626
|
-
object-oriented-programming Nirvana you must achieve complete value.)
|
627
|
-
|
628
|
-
|
629
|
-
## Contributors ##
|
630
|
-
|
631
|
-
Contributors to the original expectations codebase are mentioned there. We
|
632
|
-
hope no one on that list feels left out of this list. Please [let us
|
633
|
-
know][Lookout issues] if you do.
|
368
|
+
Method stubs are another useful thing to have in a unit testing
|
369
|
+
framework. Sometimes you need to override a method that does something a
|
370
|
+
test shouldn’t do, like access and alter bank accounts. We can override
|
371
|
+
– stub out – a method by using the ‹#stub› method. Let’s assume that we
|
372
|
+
have an ‹Account› class that has two methods, ‹#slips› and ‹#total›.
|
373
|
+
‹#Slips› retrieves the bank slips that keep track of your deposits to the
|
374
|
+
‹Account› from a database. ‹#Total› sums the ‹#slips›. In the following
|
375
|
+
test we want to make sure that ‹#total› does what it should do without
|
376
|
+
accessing the database. We therefore stub out ‹#slips› and make it
|
377
|
+
return something that we can easily control.
|
634
378
|
|
635
|
-
|
379
|
+
expect 6 do |m|
|
380
|
+
account = Account.new
|
381
|
+
stub(account).slips{ [1, 2, 3] }
|
382
|
+
account.total
|
383
|
+
end
|
636
384
|
|
637
|
-
|
385
|
+
As with mock methods, if no body is given, the result will be a stub
|
386
|
+
object.
|
638
387
|
|
388
|
+
To make it easy to create objects with a set of stubbed methods there’s
|
389
|
+
also a convenience method:
|
639
390
|
|
640
|
-
|
391
|
+
expect 3 do
|
392
|
+
s = stub(:a => 1, :b => 2)
|
393
|
+
s.a + s.b
|
394
|
+
end
|
395
|
+
|
396
|
+
Please note that this makes it impossible to stub a method on a Hash, but
|
397
|
+
you shouldn’t be doing that anyway. In fact, you should never mock or
|
398
|
+
stub methods on value objects.
|
399
|
+
|
400
|
+
§ Integration
|
401
|
+
|
402
|
+
Lookout can be used from Rake¹. Simply include the following code in
|
403
|
+
your ‹Rakefile›:
|
404
|
+
|
405
|
+
require 'lookout/rake/tasks'
|
406
|
+
|
407
|
+
Lookout::Rake::Tasks::Test.new
|
408
|
+
|
409
|
+
If the ‹:default› task hasn’t been defined it will be set to depend on the
|
410
|
+
‹:test› task.
|
411
|
+
|
412
|
+
As an added bonus you can use Lookout’s own gem² tasks:
|
413
|
+
|
414
|
+
Lookout::Rake::Tasks::Gem.new
|
415
|
+
|
416
|
+
This provides tasks to ‹build›, ‹check›, ‹install›, and ‹push› your gem.
|
417
|
+
|
418
|
+
To use Lookout together with Vim³, place ‹contrib/rakelookout.vim› in
|
419
|
+
‹~/.vim/compiler› and add
|
420
|
+
|
421
|
+
compiler rakelookout
|
422
|
+
|
423
|
+
to ‹~/.vim/after/ftplugin/ruby.vim›. Executing ‹:make› from inside Vim
|
424
|
+
will now run your tests and an errors and failures can be visited with
|
425
|
+
‹:cnext›. Execute ‹:help quickfix› for additional information.
|
426
|
+
|
427
|
+
Another useful addition to your ‹~/.vim/after/ftplugin/ruby.vim› file may
|
428
|
+
be
|
429
|
+
|
430
|
+
nnoremap <buffer> <silent> <Leader>M <Esc>:call <SID>run_test()<CR>
|
431
|
+
let b:undo_ftplugin .= ' | nunmap <buffer> <Leader>M'
|
432
|
+
|
433
|
+
function! s:run_test()
|
434
|
+
let test = expand('%')
|
435
|
+
let line = 'LINE=' . line('.')
|
436
|
+
if test =~ '^lib/'
|
437
|
+
let test = substitute(test, '^lib/', 'test/', '')
|
438
|
+
let line = ""
|
439
|
+
endif
|
440
|
+
execute 'make' 'TEST=' . shellescape(test) line
|
441
|
+
endfunction
|
442
|
+
|
443
|
+
Now, pressing ‹<Leader>M› will either run all tests for a given class, if
|
444
|
+
the implementation file is active, or run the test at or just before the
|
445
|
+
cursor, if the test file is active. This is useful if you’re currently
|
446
|
+
receiving a lot of errors and/or failures and want to focus on those
|
447
|
+
associated with a specific class or on a specific test.
|
448
|
+
|
449
|
+
¹ Read more about Rake at http://rake.rubyforge.org/
|
450
|
+
² Get information on RubyGems at http://rubygems.org/
|
451
|
+
³ Find out more about Vim at http://www.vim.org/
|
452
|
+
|
453
|
+
§ Interface Design
|
454
|
+
|
455
|
+
The default output of Lookout can Spartanly be described as Spartan. If no
|
456
|
+
errors or failures occur, no output is generated. This is unconventional,
|
457
|
+
as unit testing frameworks tend to dump a lot of information on the user,
|
458
|
+
concerning things such as progress, test count summaries, and flamboyantly
|
459
|
+
colored text telling you that your tests passed. None of this output is
|
460
|
+
needed. Your tests should run fast enough to not require progress reports.
|
461
|
+
The lack of output provides you with the same amount of information as
|
462
|
+
reporting success. Test count summaries are only useful if you’re worried
|
463
|
+
that your tests aren’t being run, but if you worry about that, then
|
464
|
+
providing such output doesn’t really help. Testing your tests requires
|
465
|
+
something beyond reporting some arbitrary count that you would have to
|
466
|
+
verify by hand anyway.
|
467
|
+
|
468
|
+
When errors or failures do occur, however, the relevant information is
|
469
|
+
output in a format that can easily be parsed by an ‹'errorformat'› for Vim
|
470
|
+
or with {Compilation Mode}¹ for Emacs². Diffs are generated for Strings,
|
471
|
+
Arrays, Hashes, and I/O.
|
472
|
+
|
473
|
+
¹ Read up on Compilation mode for Emacs at http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/CompilationMode
|
474
|
+
² Visit The GNU Foundation’s Emacs’ software page at http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/
|
475
|
+
|
476
|
+
§ External Design
|
477
|
+
|
478
|
+
Let’s now look at some of the points made in the introduction in greater
|
479
|
+
detail.
|
480
|
+
|
481
|
+
Lookout only allows you to set one expectation per test. If you’re testing
|
482
|
+
behavior with a mock, then only one method-invocation expectation can be
|
483
|
+
set. If you’re testing state, then only one result can be verified. It
|
484
|
+
may seem like this would cause unnecessary duplication between tests.
|
485
|
+
While this is certainly a possibility, when you actually begin to try to
|
486
|
+
avoid such duplication you find that you often do so by improving your
|
487
|
+
interfaces. This kind of restriction tends to encourage the use of value
|
488
|
+
objects, which are easy to test, and more focused objects, which require
|
489
|
+
simpler tests, as they have less behavior to test, per method. By keeping
|
490
|
+
your interfaces focused you’re also keeping your tests focused.
|
491
|
+
|
492
|
+
Keeping your tests focused improves, in itself, test isolation, but let’s
|
493
|
+
look at something that hinders it: setup and teardown methods. Most unit
|
494
|
+
testing frameworks encourage test fragmentation by providing setup and
|
495
|
+
teardown methods.
|
496
|
+
|
497
|
+
Setup methods create objects and, perhaps, just their behavior for a set of
|
498
|
+
tests. This means that you have to look in two places to figure out what’s
|
499
|
+
being done in a test. This may work fine for few methods with simple
|
500
|
+
set-ups, but makes things complicated when the number of tests increases
|
501
|
+
and the set-up is complex. Often, each test further adjusts the previously
|
502
|
+
set-up object before performing any verifications, further complicating the
|
503
|
+
process of figuring out what state an object has in a given test.
|
504
|
+
|
505
|
+
Teardown methods clean up after tests, perhaps by removing records from a
|
506
|
+
database or deleting files from the file-system.
|
507
|
+
|
508
|
+
The duplication that setup methods and teardown methods hope to remove is
|
509
|
+
better avoided by improving your interfaces. This can be done by providing
|
510
|
+
better set-up methods for your objects and using idioms such as {Resource
|
511
|
+
Acquisition Is Initialization}¹ for guaranteed clean-up, test or no test.
|
512
|
+
|
513
|
+
By not using setup and teardown methods we keep everything pertinent to a
|
514
|
+
test in the test itself, thus improving test isolation. (You also won’t
|
515
|
+
{slow down your tests}² by keeping unnecessary state.)
|
516
|
+
|
517
|
+
Most unit test frameworks also allow you to create arbitrary test helper
|
518
|
+
methods. Lookout doesn’t. The same rationale as that that has been
|
519
|
+
crystallized in the preceding paragraphs applies. If you need helpers
|
520
|
+
you’re interface isn’t good enough. It really is as simple as that.
|
521
|
+
|
522
|
+
To clarify: there’s nothing inherently wrong with test helper methods, but
|
523
|
+
they should be general enough that they reside in their own library. The
|
524
|
+
support for mocks in Lookout is provided through a set of test helper
|
525
|
+
methods that make it easier to create mocks than it would have been without
|
526
|
+
them. Lookout-rack³ is another example of a library providing test helper
|
527
|
+
methods (well, one of method, actually) that are very useful in testing web
|
528
|
+
applications that use Rack⁴.
|
529
|
+
|
530
|
+
A final point at which some unit test frameworks try to fragment tests
|
531
|
+
further is documentation. These frameworks provide ways of describing the
|
532
|
+
whats and hows of what’s being tested, the rationale being that this will
|
533
|
+
provide documentation of both the test and the code being tested.
|
534
|
+
Describing how a stack data structure is meant to work is a common example.
|
535
|
+
A stack is, however, a rather simple data structure, so such a description
|
536
|
+
provides little, if any, additional information that can’t be extracted
|
537
|
+
from the implementation and its tests themselves. The implementation and
|
538
|
+
its tests is, in fact, its own best documentation. Taking the points made
|
539
|
+
in the previous paragraphs into account, we should already have simple,
|
540
|
+
self-describing, interfaces that have easily understood tests associated
|
541
|
+
with them. Rationales for the use of a given data structure or
|
542
|
+
system-design design documentation is better suited in separate
|
543
|
+
documentation focused at describing exactly those issues.
|
544
|
+
|
545
|
+
¹ Read the Wikipedia entry for Resource Acquisition Is Initialization at
|
546
|
+
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resource_Acquisition_Is_Initialization
|
547
|
+
² Read how 37signals had problems with slow Test::Unit tests at
|
548
|
+
http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2742-the-road-to-faster-tests/
|
549
|
+
³ Visit the Lookout-rack GitHub project page at
|
550
|
+
http://github.com/now/lookout-rack/
|
551
|
+
⁴ Visit the Rack Rubyforge project page at
|
552
|
+
http://rack.rubyforge.org/
|
553
|
+
|
554
|
+
§ Internal Design
|
555
|
+
|
556
|
+
The internal design of Lookout has had a couple of goals.
|
557
|
+
|
558
|
+
• As few external dependencies as possible
|
559
|
+
• As few internal dependencies as possible
|
560
|
+
• Internal extensibility provides external extensibility
|
561
|
+
• As fast load times as possible
|
562
|
+
• As high a ratio of value objects to mutable objects as possible
|
563
|
+
• Each object must have a simple, obvious name
|
564
|
+
• Use mix-ins, not inheritance for shared behavior
|
565
|
+
• As few responsibilities per object as possible
|
566
|
+
• Optimizing for speed can only be done when you have all the facts
|
567
|
+
|
568
|
+
§ External Dependencies
|
569
|
+
|
570
|
+
Lookout used to depend on Mocha for mocks and stubs. While benchmarking I
|
571
|
+
noticed that a method in Mocha was taking up more than 300 percent of the
|
572
|
+
runtime. It turned out that Mocha’s method for cleaning up back-traces
|
573
|
+
generated when a mock failed was doing something incredibly stupid:
|
574
|
+
|
575
|
+
backtrace.reject{ |l| Regexp.new(@lib).match(File.expand_path(l)) }
|
576
|
+
|
577
|
+
Here ‹@lib› is a ‹String› containing the path to the lib subdirectory in
|
578
|
+
the Mocha installation directory. I reported it, provided a patch five
|
579
|
+
days later, then waited. Nothing happened. {254 days later}¹, according
|
580
|
+
to {Wolfram Alpha}², half of my patch was, apparently – I say “apparently”,
|
581
|
+
as I received no notification – applied. By that time I had replaced the
|
582
|
+
whole mocking-and-stubbing subsystem and dropped the dependency.
|
583
|
+
|
584
|
+
Many Ruby developers claim that Ruby and its gems are too fast-moving for
|
585
|
+
normal package-managing systems to keep up. This is testament to the fact
|
586
|
+
that this isn’t the case and that the real problem is instead related to
|
587
|
+
sloppy practices.
|
588
|
+
|
589
|
+
Please note that I don’t want to single out the Mocha library nor its
|
590
|
+
developers. I only want to provide an example where relying on external
|
591
|
+
dependencies can be “considered harmful”.
|
592
|
+
|
593
|
+
¹ See the Wolfram Alpha calculation at http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=days+between+march+17%2C+2010+and+november+26%2C+2010
|
594
|
+
² Check out the Wolfram Alpha computational knowledge engine at http://www.wolframalpha.com/
|
595
|
+
|
596
|
+
§ Internal Dependencies
|
597
|
+
|
598
|
+
Lookout has been designed so as to keep each subsystem independent of any
|
599
|
+
other. The diff subsystem is, for example, completely decoupled from any
|
600
|
+
other part of the system as a whole and could be moved into its own library
|
601
|
+
at a time where that would be of interest to anyone. What’s perhaps more
|
602
|
+
interesting is that the diff subsystem is itself very modular. The data
|
603
|
+
passes through a set of filters that depends on what kind of diff has been
|
604
|
+
requested, each filter yielding modified data as it receives it. If you
|
605
|
+
want to read some rather functional Ruby I can highly recommend looking at
|
606
|
+
the code in the ‹lib/lookout/diff› directory.
|
607
|
+
|
608
|
+
This lookout on the design of the library also makes it easy to extend
|
609
|
+
Lookout. Lookout-rack was, for example, written in about four hours and
|
610
|
+
about 5 of those 240 minutes were spent on setting up the interface between
|
611
|
+
the two.
|
612
|
+
|
613
|
+
§ Optimizing For Speed
|
614
|
+
|
615
|
+
The following paragraph is perhaps a bit personal, but might be interesting
|
616
|
+
nonetheless.
|
617
|
+
|
618
|
+
I’ve always worried about speed. The original Expectations library used
|
619
|
+
‹extend› a lot to add new behavior to objects. Expectations, for example,
|
620
|
+
used to hold the result of their execution (what we now term “evaluation”)
|
621
|
+
by being extended by a module representing success, failure, or error. For
|
622
|
+
the longest time I used this same method, worrying about the increased
|
623
|
+
performance cost that creating new objects for results would incur. I
|
624
|
+
finally came to a point where I felt that the code was so simple and clean
|
625
|
+
that rewriting this part of the code for a benchmark wouldn’t take more
|
626
|
+
than perhaps ten minutes. Well, ten minutes later I had my results and
|
627
|
+
they confirmed that creating new objects wasn’t harming performance. I was
|
628
|
+
very pleased.
|
629
|
+
|
630
|
+
§ Naming
|
631
|
+
|
632
|
+
I hate low lines (underscores). I try to avoid them in method names and I
|
633
|
+
always avoid them in file names. Since the current “best practice” in the
|
634
|
+
Ruby community is to put ‹BeginEndStorage› in a file called
|
635
|
+
‹begin_end_storage.rb›, I only name constants using a single noun. This
|
636
|
+
has had the added benefit that classes seem to have acquired less behavior,
|
637
|
+
as using a single noun doesn’t allow you to tack on additional behavior
|
638
|
+
without questioning if it’s really appropriate to do so, given the rather
|
639
|
+
limited range of interpretation for that noun. It also seems to encourage
|
640
|
+
the creation of value objects, as something named ‹Range› feels a lot more
|
641
|
+
like a value than ‹BeginEndStorage›. (To reach object-oriented-programming
|
642
|
+
Nirvana you must achieve complete value.)
|
643
|
+
|
644
|
+
|
645
|
+
§ Contributors
|
646
|
+
|
647
|
+
Contributors to the original expectations codebase are mentioned there. We
|
648
|
+
hope no one on that list feels left out of this list. Please
|
649
|
+
{let us know}¹ if you do.
|
650
|
+
|
651
|
+
• Nikolai Weibull
|
652
|
+
|
653
|
+
¹ Add an issue to the Lookout issue tracker at https://github.com/now/lookout/issues
|
641
654
|
|
642
|
-
You may use, copy, and redistribute this library under the same [terms][] as
|
643
|
-
Ruby itself.
|
644
655
|
|
645
|
-
|
656
|
+
§ License
|
657
|
+
|
658
|
+
You may use, copy, and redistribute this library under the same terms¹
|
659
|
+
as Ruby itself.
|
660
|
+
|
661
|
+
¹ Read the Ruby licensing terms at http://www.ruby-lang.org/en/LICENSE.txt
|