From: Phil Hagelberg <phil@...>
Date: 2008-10-09T03:14:28+09:00
Subject: [ruby-core:19212] Re: refute_{equal, match, nil, same} is not useful

"Jeremy McAnally" <jeremymcanally@gmail.com> writes:

> Even further, refute isn't actually an antonym to assert.  Refute
> usually carries the connotation of "proving" something is false where
> as assert is merely declaring something to be true.  A closer fit
> (that is used in other testing circles) is "deny," which is to,
> obviously, declare something to be false.
>
> I didn't know why I didn't like refute until I really thought about
> what it meant.  You're not really proving that the provided assumption
> is false; rather, you're declaring it.

I fully support the idea of deprecating assert_not_*, but I agree that
deny is a much better word for what the method does than refute. It's a
much better fit in terms of parallelism than refute; refute has
connotations that the refutation includes a reason.

-Phil