On Tue, Oct 7, 2008 at 10:40 PM, Ryan Davis <ryand-ruby / zenspider.com> wrote:
>
> On Sep 25, 2008, at 05:26 , Austin Ziegler wrote:
>
>> When I write a test, I'm not
>> *refuting* that something isn't equal, I'm making a positive assertion
>> of inequality (yes, that sounds odd, but it's exactly what I'm doing).
>
> I know not to get into an email argument with you, but for the sake of
> ruby-core, I have to say that I find this semantics game to be completely
> arbitrary and ridiculous.
>
I think Austin brings up a good point with his argument for semantics.
 Can you provide a compelling argument for the change?

>> A refutation is a negative assertion (I refute that these two things
>> are equal, but you're telling me that they are).
>
>
> In the same sense that when you positively assert something, if it fails, it
> fails. "I assert that these two things are equal, but you're telling me that
> they are not". That doesn't make assert a bad word choice either. It simply
> means that the test failed.
>
> I picked the best word I could find that was the opposite of assert, both
> for aesthetic and semantic value. I still stand by those choices.
>
Are there any reasons why we cannot have both refute and assert
(without deprecation/removal)?

Thanks,
Michael Guterl