Rspec: gem vs. plugin?

Testing RSpec
1

All,

I have some experience with Rspec from about a year ago. At that time,
there was a gem and a plugin, and a Rspec on Rails plugin.

Should I only be using the gem?

With the 1.1.8 gem, if I try to do “rake rspec” in my Rails app.,
nothing happens. Do I need to use the Rspec Rails plugin to get that
behavior.

I took a look at the main RSpec site, but was unable to answer these
questions by going there. My suspicion is that only the gem should be
used, but then how do I get the rake task?

Thanks,
Wes

2

On Oct 8, 2008, at 2:09 PM, Wes G. wrote:

All,

I have some experience with Rspec from about a year ago. At that
time, there was a gem and a plugin, and a Rspec on Rails plugin.

Should I only be using the gem?

If you’re using a rails app, install the two plugins. If not, use the
gem.

Scott

3

I know that this is all probably rather boring for the expert RSpec-ers
out there, and I apologize for that.

Both Rspec and Rspec-Rails are currently distributed as both plugins AND
gems? Are the plugins just available in case you don’t have the
ability/permission to install gems?

I can understand why there would be an RSpec gem (to use outside of
Rails, of course), and I can understand why there is a Rails plugin to
give you additional RSpec functionality for Rails.

But I’m not sure what the purpose of the RSpec plugin is, and also not
sure what the purpose of the RSpec-Rails gem is?

Is there a place online that summarizes the various distribution methods
and when to use which?

Thanks,
Wes

4

Zach,

Thanks for this. I installed the gem and ran “script/generate rspec”
and it appears that I don’t need the plugins anymore.

Wes

5

This recently came up, rather than re-discussing please see:

http://www.ruby-forum.com/topic/167379#new

Zach

On Wed, Oct 8, 2008 at 2:39 PM, Wes G. [email protected] wrote:

But I’m not sure what the purpose of the RSpec plugin is, and also not sure

On Oct 8, 2008, at 2:09 PM, Wes G. wrote:

http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rspec-users

–
Zach D.
http://www.continuousthinking.com

6

Scott T. [email protected] writes:

gem.
I don’t actually see any reason to use the plugins anymore. Personally
I go with gems.

To OP: you said that “rake spec” doesn’t do anything…did you run
“script/generate rspec” to get the rspec rake tasks?

Pat

7

On Wed, Oct 8, 2008 at 3:09 PM, Pat M. [email protected] wrote:

To OP: you said that “rake spec” doesn’t do anything…did you run
“script/generate rspec” to get the rspec rake tasks?

The OP wrote, “rake rspec.” Either that was a typo or he needs to run
“rake
spec” instead.

Regards,
Craig

8

I, the OP, meant “rake spec”. Sorry for the confusion.