[TIP] Mock objects in testing object composition?
Benji York
benji at benjiyork.com
Thu May 17 08:11:47 PDT 2007
Kumar McMillan wrote:
> On 4/24/07, Julius Lucks <lucks at fas.harvard.edu> wrote:
>> Many thanks Benji and Paul.
>>
>> Looks like simpler is better. So when are mock objects useful?
>
> in my experience, mock objects are useful mostly for depending on some
> kind of "external" resource.
Purists would probably call those "stubs" instead of "mocks", but I see
what you're saying.
A technique I like to use in those situations is to write a
parameterized test and apply the same test twice. Once in an
environment where the "real" thing is used and once where the "stub" is
used (with the "real" test running only in a non-developer-blocking way,
like buildbot (except when explicitly requested)).
That gives you the best of both words: you can test against the real
thing when you've made the effort of setting up the environment, and you
can be reasonably sure that your stubbed out environment is realistic
enough when not.
--
Benji York
http://benjiyork.com
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