From: Bernhard Brodowsky <brodowsb@...>
Date: 2010-04-07T19:57:16+09:00
Subject: Re: Visibility in tests

Ryan Davis wrote:
> On Apr 6, 2010, at 17:26 , Bernhard Brodowsky wrote:
> 
>> I don't know how to apply unit tests to private methods. Usually, I only
>> use very few private methods and for my small private purposes, it was
>> okay to just set those few to public, too, but how do you do that in a
>> good way, if you really do have good reasons for making the methods
>> private?
> 
> easy! make them public!
> 
> Either don't make them private in the first place (my preference) or 
> make them public in your tests (second choice... usually when I'm 
> working with inherited code):
> 
> class X
>   public :previously_private_method
> end
> 
> class TestX < MiniTest::Unit::TestCase
>   def test_previously_private_method
>     ...
>   end
> end

Okay, thanks, a lot, nice and easy idea, I should have seen that. :)

Brian Candler wrote:
> Ryan Davis wrote:
>> On Apr 6, 2010, at 17:26 , Bernhard Brodowsky wrote:
>> 
>>> I don't know how to apply unit tests to private methods. Usually, I only
>>> use very few private methods and for my small private purposes, it was
>>> okay to just set those few to public, too, but how do you do that in a
>>> good way, if you really do have good reasons for making the methods
>>> private?
>> 
>> easy! make them public!
> 
> Or use one of:
> 
>   obj.send(:private_method_name, args...)
> 
>   obj.instance_eval { private_method_name args... }
> 
> Note that the latter also switches the object context so that '@foo' 
> inside the block means the @foo instance variable inside obj. That can 
> be useful too.

Thanks a lot, I think the possibility to access instance variables from 
outside will also be very useful for other purposes. Okay, now I will 
have no problems anymore to write tests for private methods.^^
-- 
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.