From: Phlip <phlip2005@...>
Date: 2009-03-30T10:24:53+09:00
Subject: Re: testy.rb - ruby testing that's mad at the world

ara.t.howard wrote:

> thoughtbot-factory_girl-1.2.0
>       937
> thoughtbot-shoulda-2.9.1
>      3854
> rspec-1.1.12
>      8773

Well, the good news is Ruby is essentially a "post-Agile" environment. Your boss 
can no longer fire you for writing "too many" unit tests. Many environments, 
even in this day and age, have not matured so far!

The other good news is our enthusiasm has made us forget many of the original 
Agile ground rules. TDD requires rapid feedback over tiny code changes, close to 
the tested code, and setting up a Cucumber suite with a handful of mock objects 
does not qualify as rapid feedback, running close to the code. Mocks are indeed 
a way to help your code's design couple together. So BigAgileUpFront, 
Ruby-style, might indeed be a big risk here.

If it isn't, we have to learn from it, because Ruby's BDD community represents 
an amazing sight. The original BDD, FIT and Fitnesse, required hordes of 
overpaid consultants to install, typically at big-iron sites. Ruby BDD, by 
contrast, is just as light, free, and community-supported as Rails itself, and I 
suspect it's the leading edge of "customer testing" research in general.

-- 
   Phlip