From: Joel VanderWerf <vjoel@...>
Date: 2003-08-10T09:11:24+09:00
Subject: Test::Unit in 1.8


So far I've noticed two changes in the Test::Unit included with 1.8. 
They've probably been in Test::Unit for I long time, but I'm just 
encountering them now with 1.8, due to laziness.

First, you have to define #setup instead of #set_up. I guess I prefer 
the new way (I remember a long discussion some time ago), but it might 
be nice to get a warning that you have defined #set_up, and it will not 
be called...

Second, you can no longer define a subclass of TestCase to be used as an 
"abstract" base class of other test case classes. For example, the 
following flunks, because BaseTest has no tests:

require 'test/unit'

class BaseTest < Test::Unit::TestCase
   def do_foo_test
     puts "testing foo"
   end
end

class DerivedTest < BaseTest
   def test_derived
     do_foo_test
   end
end

I've gotten around this by adding a dummy test method to my base class. 
I could also have made it a mixin. It's just a minor annoyance.

Maybe it would be possible to have a class method of TestCase that marks 
the class as "abstract"? E.g.,

class BaseTest < Test::Unit::TestCase
   abstract_test_class
   ...
end

Hope this helps someone who's as slow to upgrade as me...