I've been working a lot on miniunit (still needs a new name) and have been playing with words lately. should has been replaced with must, and should_not (lame!) has been replaced with wont. Wish I could have an apostrophe in there.
For a while Eric and I have added a method to our assertion suite:
def deny exp
assert ! exp
end
It is a really handy way to describe things. I dislike the look and sound of assert ! blah so we go with deny... but one thing bugs me:
def test\_something
assert 42 == 6 * 7
deny 42 == 6 * 9 # does not line up
end
Yeah yeah... I'm OCD or something. I would much rather read:
def test\_something\_better
assert 42 == 6 * 7
refute 42 == 6 * 9
end
I was digging through Apple's wonderful dictionary and thesaurus and came up with another possibility: debunk... how much better or worse is this?
def test\_something\_better
assert 42 == 6 * 7
debunk 42 == 6 * 9
end
Hell... let's get rid of assert and go with prove and rebut! I've just saved you all an extra key per test! OH! show! Now that's a lot more assertive (pun intended) than assert is. That means I could come back full circle to deny.
That reminds me... I've LONG wanted a list of same-length opposite verbs and adjectives. Google turns up nothing... I'm wondering if I can't somehow generate it with GED's linguistics library.
Apple's dictionary/thesaurus is too much fun :-)
I wonder, are we really "asserting" that something is true, or are checking if it is?
confirm confute
Of course those look too similar, and "assert" is already established.
assert 42 == 6 * 7 refute '42' == 'life, the universe, and everything'
Seems best.
must and wont are awesome. refute is better than debunk. assert is better than show.
Dan, I think I tend to agree.
I think I'm going to stick to:
assert/refute for mini/test.rb must/wont for mini/spec.rb
The only problem with mapping fro assert to must is that I'm going to have to add "be_" to many of the musts to make it read well, but that's pretty minor.