comparison of BDD-style PHPUnit VS PHPSpec1 (has almost nothing to do with phpspec2)

bdd_in_phpunit__vs__phpspec.php

<?php

// how that:

class DescribeContextZend extends PHPSpec_Context
{
    public function itShouldSetControllerNameUsingContextClass()
    {
        $context = new DescribeFooController;
        $this->spec($context->getController())->should->be('Foo');
    }

    public function itShouldCreateFrontControllerWhenInstantiated()
    {
        $context = new DescribeFooController;
        $this->spec($context->getFrontController())->should
            ->beAnInstanceOf('Zend_Controller_Front');
    }
}

// is better than that:

class ContextZendTest extends PHPUnit_Framework_TestCase
{
    /**
     * @Test
     */
    public function itShouldSetControllerNameUsingContextClass()
    {
        $context = new DescribeFooController;
        $this->assertEquals('Foo', $context->getController());
    }

    /**
     * @Test
     */
    public function itShouldCreateFrontControllerWhenInstantiated()
    {
        $context = new DescribeFooController;
        $this->assertInstanceOf('Zend_Controller_Front', $context->getFrontController());
    }
}

// ? :-)

// And what's even worse - second one is really-really more readable!

👍 people make libraries for the sake of making libraries nowadays :)

@avalanche123 PHPSpec was written back in 2007, not with the intention to replace PHPUnit. Pádraic saw that BDD was a good idea and wanted to make it possible for PHP developers to use a BDD framework. everzet spec could have been written slightly better, as I have shown him, but I agree that the DSL in PHPSpec is far from perfect, specially the OO version (that seems to be there because of PHPUnit influence, interesting enough). I agree with you that people jump very quickly into criticising and writing new libraries instead of contributing to existing open source projects. That's why I joined as a contributor to PHPSpec instead of creating my own. I also see BDD's value and found in PHPSpec a potential to create a proper spec framework. Plus I also think $result->should->be(42) better than $this->assertEquals(42, $result), because it keeps the focus on feature rather then code.

Please refer to the update of the syntax in phpspec version 2: https://gist.github.com/07831388218f192068ce