README.md

rspec-unit

Test::Unit compatibility for Rspec.

Just add this to your code:

require 'rspec/unit'

and then you can write test classes like this:

class FooTest < Rspec::Unit::TestCase
  def test_foo
    assert_equal 3, Foo::major_version
  end
end

Using the test_info method, you can attach metadata to the next defined test (this works much the same way Rake's desc method attaches a description string to the next defined task):

test_info :speed => 'slow', :run => 'nightly'
def test_tarantula_multipass
  # ...
end

You can also attach metadata to the entire class with the test_case_info method:

class BarTest < Rspec::Unit::TestCase
  test_case_info :integration => true
  
  # ...
end

Each instance of Rspec::Unit::TestCase is equivalent to an Rspec describe block, so it can also include it blocks, before and after blocks, and nested describe blocks. Test methods and it blocks can contain either assertions or should expressions. test blocks (as found in Rails 2.x) also work.

Additionally, assertions can be used inside ordinary Rspec examples.

Rationale

I originally wrote test/unit compatibility for Micronaut, a lightweight Rspec clone by Chad Humphries. Micronaut has been rolled into Rspec as the core of Rspec 2, and I was able to move the test/unit compatibility over with minimal changes.

The point of this gem is not that I think test/unit is a better way to write tests than the Rspec style. I admit that I'm a TDD oldtimer who sees Rspec as mostly a cosmetic (rather than fundamental) change, but that doesn't mean it's not an important change. My curmudgeonly nature has its limits, and I do find specs a big improvement.

So why rspec-unit? Three reasons:

1. I wanted to show off the generality of Micronaut's (and now Rspec's) architecture. I hope rspec-unit can serve as an example for anyone who wants to experiment with new ways of expressing tests and specs on top of Rspec.
2. Many projects with existing test/unit test suites might want to benefit from the metadata goodness in Rspec 2, or begin a gradual, piecemeal change to an Rspec style. That's pretty easy to do with rspec-unit.
3. Even when writing specs and examples, I frequently encounter cases where an assertion is more expressive than a should expression. It's nice just to have assertions supported within Rspec examples.

To Do

It would be nice to try using the assertion code from minitest, which is much more compact and seems less coupled than that from test/unit.

Copyright

Copyright (c) 2009, 2010 Glenn Vanderburg. See LICENSE for details.