From: Ben Giddings <bg-rubytalk@...>
Date: 2005-02-17T00:08:22+09:00
Subject: Re: [ANN] FileSystem 0.1.0: Beta for me, Alpha for you

On Feb 16, 2005, at 09:39, Francis Hwang wrote:
> To use it in live code, you call get methods on the FileSystem module:
>
>   FileSystem.get_dir => Dir
>   FileSystem.get_file => File
>   FileSystem.get_file_utils => FileUtils
>   FileSystem.get_dir.entries( '.' ) => [ '.', '..', 'file1', ... ]
>
> (I'm thinking about adding a voodoo.rb file that actually re-assigns 
> the constants Dir, File, and FileUtils, though I suspect this will not 
> be that usable in many cases.)
>
> Then, to mock out that activity for a test code, simply call 
> FileSystem.mock= :
>
>   FileSystem.mock = true
>   FileSystem.get_dir => FileSystem::DirAdapter
>   FileSystem.get_file => FileSystem::FileAdapter
>   FileSystem.get_file_utils => FileSystem::FileUtilsAdapter
>   FileSystem.get_dir.entries( '.' ) => [ '.', '..', ... ]

Hi Francis,

I like the idea, and the idea of mocking out things like filesystems is 
very important.  Just a few comments on the naming of things:

If the class is mainly just a test construct and/or a proxy for actual 
Filesystem calls, maybe "Test" or "Proxy" should be part of the class 
name.  Secondly, method names that start with "get_" seem pretty 
un-rubyish.  They feel more like Java getFoo() and setFoo() type 
functions.  Maybe it would make sense to rename them just dir, file, 
file_utils and dir_entries?

Ben

P.S. If you ever decide to mock out a human being, let me know.  This 
morning in the shower I was wondering how I can mock out the person who 
has to push a button on an embedded device I'm working on.  Sure, I can 
easily mock out the register that pushing the button supposedly 
changes, but that kinda defeats the purpose of the test.