Now in Beta: Effective Testing with RSpec 3

Myron Marston

Six years ago, The RSpec Book introduced thousands of people to RSpec and helped them get the most out of the framework. Since that time, RSpec has continued to evolve. RSpec 3 brought many changes to help developers build and test better Ruby programs. The RSpec Book, now quite out of date, does not cover these changes. Readers have been asking: is there going to be a new book?

In fact, Ian Dees and I have been hard at work on a brand new book for over two years. Ian brings with him a wealth of experience from using RSpec since 2006. He has a keen ability to translate technical concepts into easy-to-read, enjoyable books, such as the PragProg titles Seven More Languages in Seven Weeks and Cucumber Recipes.

I’ve been the lead maintainer of RSpec since 2012. I’ve built many of RSpec’s notable additions in recent years, including composable matchers, the --bisect and --only-failures options, and the :aggregate_failures features. Together, we’ve written a book we’re very proud of, and we’re happy to announce it is now in beta:

We’ve written Effective Testing with RSpec 3: Build Ruby Apps with Confidence to be the definitive guide to modern RSpec. If you’re new to RSpec, it’s a perfect introduction. If you’ve used RSpec before, but haven’t kept up with the recent changes, this book will get you up to speed, covering new features through the soon-to-be-released RSpec 3.6.

Our book goes far beyond the RSpec documentation, walking through building a real-world JSON API and then diving deep into each part of RSpec. The theme of effective testing–using practices to get more value out of your specs than the cost of writing them–is woven throughout.

If you’re interested in the book, you can purchase the beta eBook now!