From: Ryan Davis <ryand-ruby@...>
Date: 2013-03-08T10:14:52+09:00
Subject: Re: Cannot Use Initialize With Minitest?


On Mar 7, 2013, at 15:02 , James Harrison <jam@jamandbees.net> wrote:

> Hey folks,
> 
> I've been trying my best to write a class that uses initialize() with minitest, so that I can swap out a specific dependency at runtime. It appears, though, that I cannot use initialize() in a class that inherits from minitest:
> 
> #####
> require "minitest/autorun"
> 
> #A simple dependency which is being dispatched to.
> class Dependency
>   def initialize(argument)
>     $stderr.puts argument
>   end
> end
> 
> #The main test class. 
> class TestProblemReproduction < MiniTest::Unit::TestCase
>   def initialize(test_argument)
>     Dependency.new(test_argument)
>   end
> 
>   def test_something
>     puts "This is here so minitest does something."
>   end
> end
> 
> 
> TestProblemReproduction.new("stuff")
> 
> #######
> 
> Expected Output is to see the class Dependency output "stuff".
> The actual output is that the class Dependency outputs "stuff\ntest_something"

The #1 rule of OO is if you override a method you NEED to call super.
The #2 rule of OO is if you override a method you NEED to make sure it conforms to the contract.

You're breaking both these rules. #initialize is defined on TestCase, and it takes an arg which is the name of the test being run.

> However, I have a use case where I would like to use minitest to run my test cases, but I have a bunch of tests written in selenium. With one flag, the selenium browser will be constructed to run locally on my desktop, for local testing. With a different flag, the selenium browser is constructed to run remotely on a set of remote test servers.
> 
> Is there any way I can hand a dependency into my minitest based test cases? Or do they have to be static?

There is nothing static about minitest. I don't see why you need to do this via initialize/new tho, so I'm guessing I don't understand the problem well enough.

You shouldn't be instantiating TestCase instances. That's the runner's job.