Re:Why I don't mock
by meric on Wednesday May 28, 2014 @08:44AM
(#7809595)
I don't use mocks much, except with regard to the "now" method. There's some code that relies on the current time, I can use mock to mock many values of 'current time' instead of being forced to only test the case where the current time is when I run the unit test. This is especially important when dealing with code involving time zone and day light savings.
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My experience with time is that whenever you build a system that is time-dependent in any meaningful way, you want to have "synthetic time" that you control, which you only feed with real time in a single, controllable place.
Otherwise you get nasty effects, such as time moving on while your system is processing etc.
I'm guessing you mean like:
def has_expired(now=None):
#.. implementation
def has_expired():
#.. implementation
def get_request_handler(request):
#...code
now = timezone.now()
if has_expired(now=now):
raise Error403.
If you are only changing the value of what an API returns, that is not a mock. It is a stub.
I agree. But another option is to make all the methods that would call now() take an extra parameter of the current time. Talk about making your dependencies explicit...
Re:Why I don't mock
by GrinningFool on Wednesday May 28, 2014 @10:03AM
(#7809916)
But now you've...
a) changed your interface in a way that invites use cases you never intended (or wanted) to support.
b) added branching code anywhere that requires now()