On Thu, Feb 19, 2009 at 11:38 AM, Mark Wilden <m...@mwilden.com> wrote: > On Wed, Feb 18, 2009 at 9:40 PM, Stephen Eley <sfe...@gmail.com> wrote: >> On Wed, Feb 18, 2009 at 11:42 PM, Yi Wen <hayafi...@gmail.com> wrote: >> >> validates_presence_of happens to be the name of the method in >> ActiveRecord that does that. But if you decide to write your own >> check_to_see_if_this_thingy_is_in_my_whatsis() method that does the >> same thing, a good *behavior* spec will not break. Because the >> behavior remains the same. > > I think you're talking about state-based, blackbox testing, rather > than behavior-based whitebox testing. RSpec unit tests are all about > speccing that one object calls another object's method at the right > time.
This is true in cases where the object delegates responsibility and that delegation is significant. If a collaborator is polymorphic, and the correct collaborator is chosen based on conditions external to the subject, then it makes sense to spec interactions. If the collaborator connects to an external resource like a database or a network, then stubbing the collaborator makes good sense. On the contrary, if the collaborator is created internally and is always the same object and does not require any setup outside of the subject, then spec'ing interactions doesn't make sense. Make sense? > The idea being that if that behavior occurs, and that the other > object's method has been similarly tested, that you're OK. With the caveat that somewhere there is some level of integration testing going on. Although it looks like J.B. Rainsberger disagrees: http://agile2009.agilealliance.org/node/708 (you have to have an account to view this - but the title of his proposed talk is "Integration Tests are a Scam"). I don't know enough of the detail of his arguments to argue them here, but it seems like an interesting discussion. FWIW, David > > ///ark > _______________________________________________ > rspec-users mailing list > rspec-users@rubyforge.org > http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rspec-users > _______________________________________________ rspec-users mailing list rspec-users@rubyforge.org http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rspec-users
