I am one of the majority who prefer RSpec over Test::Unit.
I've been using RSpec since June 2007 and I've definitely grown familiar
with it and prefer its syntax. I definitely prefer RSpec's way of running a
single test: spec <file>:<line>.
I can see 2 major concerns that will be raised during this debate.
1) "It's already working, why change it?" - I think this has been answered
already: The community prefers RSpec. The Rails tests were written in
Test::Unit because that's all there was. Now there's a multitude of
frameworks out there and it just so happens that RSpec appears to be the
favourite. By using RSpec, you're lowering the barrier of entry to those who
have only ever used RSpec *and* RSpec's syntax (@some.complex.thing.should
eql(2)) is not as ambiguous as Test::Unit's assert_equal, which is backwards
imo. Sure, syntax is just details, but details are important.
I can't point out any particular massive SVN-to-Git-like changes the switch
to RSpec would bring, but this is probably something other people can bring
up and point out. I can think of two though: easier-to-understand output and
proper Hash diffing ("hash1 contains key 'blah', hash2 doesn't", rather than
a diff which was not made for Hashes, but Strings).
2) "It'll be a mammoth effort to switch over!" - To those who raise this
point: if you don't want to help, then don't. I'm sure if there were enough
people working on converting the tests over to RSpec then it won't be a
problem for you personally. You'll just have to learn something new (if you
didn't know RSpec already). If your adverse to that then you probably
shouldn't be doing web dev.
I am all for this change over, but unfortunately I do not have the time to
assist on any meaningful scale above (pun alert!) "spectator". I think
what'll need to happen is that a group of *dedicated* people will need to
work together on converting this over after the core's "blessing". I think
that Yehuda would be for it, but to convince the other Higher Ups may prove
troublesome. Careful of their fragile egos. I must mention again that this
won't take a day. A week. It's probably something more like a month of
medium-to-hard work, head-scratching and omgwtf'ing. Be prepared.
People prefer RSpec, and I think Test::Unit's time is up.
It's time for a change.
--
Ryan Bigg / Radar
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