Maybe it is just me, but I had suspected some weirdness here and there from using the fancy “let(:var_sym)” syntax. The trusty RSpec book says:

The first call to let( ) defines a memoized output( ) method that returns
a double object. Memoized means that the first time the method is
invoked, the return value is cached and that same value is returned
every subsequent time the method is invoked within the same scope.

So, it would seem that let() is a great way to define an object once, and use it from there onward.

However, I saw that in this particular instance of running an “expensive” operation in the let block, it took 17 seconds instead of 7 seconds to run the specs! I could see my specs ticking along, very slowly, one at a time. What the heck? I asked myself. Is there something that says “turn caching off (or on)?”

Fancy Schmancy! To save ~10 seconds, I’ll forgo the niceties of let() and revert to using the @var_name syntax.

Given the following RSpec code:

 context 'instance methods' do
    let(:sample_xml_file) {File.expand_path('../../data/sample_v_1_13.xml', __FILE__)}
    let(:p) {
      xml_str = File.read(sample_xml_file)
      Nemsis::Parser.new(xml_str)
    }
    let(:r) {Nemsis::Renderer::HTML.new(p)}

    describe '#render_html' do
      context "plain HTML" do
        let(:html) { r.render(false) }

        it 'returns not nil' do
          html.should_not be_nil
        end

        it 'has title section' do
          html.should =~ ...
        end

        context 'specialty patient section' do
          it('has specialty patient') { html.should =~ ... }
          it('has specialty patient trauma criteria') { html.should =~ ... }
          it('has specialty patient airway') { html.should =~ ... }
        end

        it "should not have a STYLE section" do
          html.should_not =~ ...
        end

        it "write to html file" do
          write_html_file(sample_xml_file, "simple", html)
        end
      end

      context "fancy HTML" do
        let(:html) { r.render(true) }

        it "should have a STYLE section" do
          html.should =~ ...
        end

        it "write to html file" do
          write_html_file(sample_xml_file, "fancy", html)
        end
      end
    end
    ...

Contrast the above with the more traditional approach that uses a before block and @variables:

 context 'instance methods' do

    before :all do
      @sample_xml_file = File.expand_path('../../data/sample_v_1_13.xml', __FILE__)
      xml_str = File.read(@sample_xml_file)
      p = Nemsis::Parser.new(xml_str)
      r = Nemsis::Renderer::HTML.new(p)
      @html = r.render(false)
    end

    describe '#render_html' do
      context "plain HTML" do

        it 'returns not nil' do
          @html.should_not be_nil
        end

I did a bit more formal timing, which revealed the truth:

• let() — 10.7 seconds
• before block — 2.4 seconds

Am I missing something?