rspec users - Feb 2007 - Spec failing [Possible Bug with kind_of? and instance_of?]

I have a spec which is failing, but I just can''t say why.  Maybe
I''m
missing something painfully obvious?

Here is the pastie of the results & the spec:

http://pastie.caboo.se/42626

The spec to look for is "should have an array of users"  I''ve
printed
out ("puts''ed") to the terminal the fact that the values are
*opposite* to what the spec fails on...

Thanks, all, for your help,

Best Regards,

Scott Taylor


P.S.  In the future shall I just plop in a bunch of code to my  
message, or is pastie a good means for delivering somewhat large  
chunks of code?

On 2/24/07, Scott Taylor <mailing_lists at railsnewbie.com>
wrote:
>
> I have a spec which is failing, but I just can''t say why.  Maybe
I''m
> missing something painfully obvious?
>
> Here is the pastie of the results & the spec:
>
> http://pastie.caboo.se/42626
>
> The spec to look for is "should have an array of users" 
I''ve printed
> out ("puts''ed") to the terminal the fact that the values
are
> *opposite* to what the spec fails on...
This is a bug related to the underscore sugar and Active Record, and
is one of the many reasons we are eliminating the underscore sugar. If
you use 0.8.0-RC1 or the current trunk, you can do this:

@bdd.users.should be_an_instance_of(Array)

and it will pass.

Cheers,
David
>
> Thanks, all, for your help,
>
> Best Regards,
>
> Scott Taylor
>
>
> P.S.  In the future shall I just plop in a bunch of code to my
> message, or is pastie a good means for delivering somewhat large
> chunks of code?
> _______________________________________________
> rspec-users mailing list
> rspec-users at rubyforge.org
> http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rspec-users
>

Answer written in haste, so may well be wrong...

Rails associations are not Arrays even though they claim to be.  I think  
they are ActiveRecord::Associations::AssociationProxies; why they claim to  
be Array I have no idea, simply being Enumerable would have sufficed I  
would have imagined.  Why they proxy an array rather han extending it I  
have no idea.  I have very few ideas :-).  I personally believe proxies  
that lie to the developer like this should Be Considered Harmful, but
it''s
not my opinion that counts in this particular piece of opinionated  
software :-).

I haven''t yet worked out how to tell an AP from an Array.

Hope this helps.  Hope I''ve remembered correctly too!

Rgds,
   Jerry

On Sat, 24 Feb 2007 10:21:25 -0000, Scott Taylor  
<mailing_lists at railsnewbie.com> wrote:
>
> I have a spec which is failing, but I just can''t say why.  Maybe
I''m
> missing something painfully obvious?
>
> Here is the pastie of the results & the spec:
>
> http://pastie.caboo.se/42626
>
> The spec to look for is "should have an array of users" 
I''ve printed
> out ("puts''ed") to the terminal the fact that the values
are
> *opposite* to what the spec fails on...
>
> Thanks, all, for your help,
>
> Best Regards,
>
> Scott Taylor
>
>
> P.S.  In the future shall I just plop in a bunch of code to my
> message, or is pastie a good means for delivering somewhat large
> chunks of code?
> _______________________________________________
> rspec-users mailing list
> rspec-users at rubyforge.org
> http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rspec-users


-- 
Using Opera''s revolutionary e-mail client: http://www.opera.com/mail/

Ah.  A quick google reveals more of the mystery..

"The target of AssociationProxy is not always an instance of Array. For
  example, for BelongsToAssociation it''s a ActiveRecord::Base
instance."

  http://blade.nagaokaut.ac.jp/cgi-bin/scat.rb/ruby/ruby-talk/143483

Rgds, Jerry