My opinion: those is_deeply() tests should probably not pass. While on the surface it may appear that they should, I would argue that this is a case where the programmer writing the tests needs to know enough about the system he or she is building to create tests that accurately reflect how the code will be used.
This is fine: isa_ok($str2, ref $str1, '... and the object'); This is (almost) not fine: is($str2, $str1, '... and the strings are equal'); However, the latter (and is_deeply()) should work *If and Only If* that comparison is part of the documented interface. If it's not documented, I don't want an explicit test for behavior that might change from the standpoint of the person using the code. Of course, I don't mind testing internals that might change: people using the code won't be mucking with the internals. The problem, of course, is that this implies that the exact behavior of is_deeply() should change depending upon whether or not a particular use of code is documented. This is not what I mean. I suspect that we have a case where there is no clear cut answer, but the programmers writing tests need to know the pros and cons of different approaches. I hope that made sense. Cheers, Ovid ===== Silence is Evil http://users.easystreet.com/ovid/philosophy/indexdecency.htm Ovid http://www.perlmonks.org/index.pl?node_id=17000 Web Programming with Perl http://users.easystreet.com/ovid/cgi_course/ __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com
