From: Dave Thomas <Dave@...>
Date: 2002-02-26T04:31:14+09:00
Subject: Re: [ANN] TestUnit 0.1.1

Tobias Reif <tobiasreif@pinkjuice.com> writes:

> DT> TestCase = RUNIT::TestCase
> 
> TR> That looks strange to me.
> 
> DT> Perhaps, but its valid.
> 
> No doubt :) I'm just trying to understand the concept.

Class names, like 'String' are simply constants that reference the
underlying class _object_. They can be assigned like any other values,
so I could do

   dog = File
   cat = dog.new("/etc/passwd")

etc

The original assignment above merely makes TestCase reference the same
class as RUNIT::TestCase

> > That isn't the point. It _is_ in a module already. The 'rubyunit'
> > extension hides that fact by aliasing a class name.
> 
> Why is it in a module? Probably for some other benefit, unrelated to
> namespaces(?)

I can't speak for the original writer, but probably for namespace
protection.

> (what's the stuff called that looks like MODULE:: ?).

Scope resolution.

> Now that I'm planning on releasing the lib, I think that people
> might use it with other libs, so I'm planning on wrapping the whole
> thing in a module.

That's a good plan. I'd do just that, and not worry about the other
stuff. The testing thing was a slightly special case, indented to make
testing a easy and non-threatening as possible.


Dave