rspec users - Nov 2007 - Stylistic preferences

What are people''s opinions on which of these two styles is better to  
use?

1) before
---------------------------
module UserSpecHelper
   include GenericSpecHelper

   def valid_sms_attributes(phone_number="12345")
     { :phone_number => phone_number }
   end
end

describe User, "with phone number" do
   include UserSpecHelper

   before(:each) do
     @user = User.new(valid_sms_attributes)
   end

   it "should be valid" do
     @user.should be_valid
   end

   it "should reject duplicate phone number" do
     @user.save
     @user_2 = User.new(valid_sms_attributes)
     @user_2.should_not be_valid
   end

   it "should be possible to disable the number" do
     @user.save
     @user.disable_number
     @user.should be_disabled
   end
end


------------------------
2) given/yield
---------------------------
module GenericSpecHelper
   def given(thing)
     yield thing if block_given?
     thing
   end

end


module UserSpecHelper
   include GenericSpecHelper
   def valid_sms_attributes(phone_number="12345")
     { :phone_number => phone_number }
   end

   def valid_sms_user(phone_number="12345")
     User.new(valid_sms_attributes(phone_number))
   end
end


describe User, "unconfirmed" do
   include UserSpecHelper

   it "should be valid" do
     valid_sms_user.should be_valid
   end

   it "should reject duplicate phone number" do
     valid_sms_user("1").save
     valid_sms_user("1").should_not be_valid
   end

   it "should be possible to disable the number" do
     given(valid_sms_user) do |user|
       user.save
       user.disable_number
       user.should be_disabled
     end
   end


end
-------------------

My thoughts: the second style is more readable sometimes, less other  
times. More importantly, with the first style, my specs tend to be  
split alongside the lines of whether they can use the same before 
(:each), rather than whether they belong together, whereas with the  
second one, one "description" can have several different
"starting
points", and I group them by whether I feel they belong together  
logically. So at the moment I''m more comfortable with the second style.

What do you think?

Daniel

PS: I know these specs themselves are trivial... I''ve used both  
approaches in less trivial specs, I hope these illustrate the idea  
though

On Nov 29, 2007, at 5:54 AM, Daniel Tenner wrote:
> What are people''s opinions on which of these two styles is better
to
> use?
>
>
>   it "should be possible to disable the number" do
>     given(valid_sms_user) do |user|
>       user.save
>       user.disable_number
>       user.should be_disabled
>     end
>   end
>

it "should be possible to disable the number" do
   lambda {
     user.save
     user.disable_number
   }.should change(user, :disabled?).from(true).to(false)
end

If this doesn''t work, the solution is very close to this.

The code works fine. I was asking about the "given" thing.

Daniel

On 3 Dec 2007, at 13:32 3 Dec 2007, Bryan Liles wrote:
>
> On Nov 29, 2007, at 5:54 AM, Daniel Tenner wrote:
>
>> What are people''s opinions on which of these two styles is
better to
>> use?
>>
>>
>>   it "should be possible to disable the number" do
>>     given(valid_sms_user) do |user|
>>       user.save
>>       user.disable_number
>>       user.should be_disabled
>>     end
>>   end
>>
>
>
> it "should be possible to disable the number" do
>    lambda {
>      user.save
>      user.disable_number
>    }.should change(user, :disabled?).from(true).to(false)
> end
>
> If this doesn''t work, the solution is very close to this.
>
> _______________________________________________
> rspec-users mailing list
> rspec-users at rubyforge.org
> http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rspec-users

Well, I kinda like the word given, however I feel it''s competing with
the
Context in  describe Class, "Context" do

Maybe before should be replaced with some givens and expectations, like so:

describe Class, "Context" do

  given do

  end

  always_expect do

  end

  it "should ..." do

  end

end

Stefan

2007/11/29, Daniel Tenner <daniel.ruby at
tenner.org>:
>
> What are people''s opinions on which of these two styles is better
to
> use?
>
> 1) before
> ---------------------------
> module UserSpecHelper
>    include GenericSpecHelper
>
>    def valid_sms_attributes(phone_number="12345")
>      { :phone_number => phone_number }
>    end
> end
>
> describe User, "with phone number" do
>    include UserSpecHelper
>
>    before(:each) do
>      @user = User.new(valid_sms_attributes)
>    end
>
>    it "should be valid" do
>      @user.should be_valid
>    end
>
>    it "should reject duplicate phone number" do
>      @user.save
>      @user_2 = User.new(valid_sms_attributes)
>      @user_2.should_not be_valid
>    end
>
>    it "should be possible to disable the number" do
>      @user.save
>      @user.disable_number
>      @user.should be_disabled
>    end
> end
>
>
> ------------------------
> 2) given/yield
> ---------------------------
> module GenericSpecHelper
>    def given(thing)
>      yield thing if block_given?
>      thing
>    end
>
> end
>
>
> module UserSpecHelper
>    include GenericSpecHelper
>    def valid_sms_attributes(phone_number="12345")
>      { :phone_number => phone_number }
>    end
>
>    def valid_sms_user(phone_number="12345")
>      User.new(valid_sms_attributes(phone_number))
>    end
> end
>
>
> describe User, "unconfirmed" do
>    include UserSpecHelper
>
>    it "should be valid" do
>      valid_sms_user.should be_valid
>    end
>
>    it "should reject duplicate phone number" do
>      valid_sms_user("1").save
>      valid_sms_user("1").should_not be_valid
>    end
>
>    it "should be possible to disable the number" do
>      given(valid_sms_user) do |user|
>        user.save
>        user.disable_number
>        user.should be_disabled
>      end
>    end
>
>
> end
> -------------------
>
> My thoughts: the second style is more readable sometimes, less other
> times. More importantly, with the first style, my specs tend to be
> split alongside the lines of whether they can use the same before
> (:each), rather than whether they belong together, whereas with the
> second one, one "description" can have several different
"starting
> points", and I group them by whether I feel they belong together
> logically. So at the moment I''m more comfortable with the second
style.
>
> What do you think?
>
> Daniel
>
> PS: I know these specs themselves are trivial... I''ve used both
> approaches in less trivial specs, I hope these illustrate the idea
> though
> _______________________________________________
> rspec-users mailing list
> rspec-users at rubyforge.org
> http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rspec-users
>


-- 
Bekk Open Source
http://boss.bekk.no
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