Which specs do you prefer?

gistfile1.rb

# Which specs do you prefer?
#
# These?

describe SalaryAverager do
  before(:each) do
    @averager = SalaryAverager.new("spec/fake_data.csv") 
  end

  describe "#average_salary" do
    it "returns the average salary for all entries" do
      @averager.average_salary.should == 110000.0
    end
  end

  describe "salaries" do
    it "returns an array of salary floats" do
      @averager.salaries.should == [100000.0, 120000.0]
    end
  end
end

# Or these?

describe SalaryAverager do
  before(:each) do
    @averager = SalaryAverager.new("spec/fake_data.csv")
  end

  describe "#average_salary" do
    specify { @averager.average_salary.should == 110000.0 }
  end

  describe "salaries" do
    specify { @averager.salaries.should == [100000.0, 120000.0] }
  end
end

Personally, I prefer the "docstring" style of the first example. However, for methods as straightforward as these, I appreciate the second's terseness.

If methods as straightforward as these, I prefer another rspec's 'its' style:
describe SalaryAverager do
subject { SalaryAverager.new("spec/fake_data.csv") }

  its(:average_salary) { should == 110000.0 }
  its(:salaries) { should == [100000.0, 120000.0] }
end

What do you think?

It boils down to whether you care about the output or not. The first ones will output this:

SalaryAverager
  #average_salary
    returns the average salary for all entries
  salaries
    returns an array of salary floats

This ^^ tells me what the object does in an abstract way. The latter examples produce this, which is arguably useless as documentation:

SalaryAverager
  #average_salary
    should == 110000.0
  salaries
    should == [100000.0, 120000.0]

David: thanks for the clarification. Do you use the documentation output often? I know some folks run their specs like that all the time, but I never have.

I actually think the first version wins over the second even without this output difference. The "docstrings" provide a lot of useful info in my experience.

r00k - absolutely!