Mocking using 'traditional' Record/Replay vs Moq model

Question

I'm new to mocks and am deciding on a mock framework. The Moq home quotes

Currently, it's the only mocking library that goes against the generalized and somewhat unintuitive (especially for novices) Record/Reply approach from all other frameworks.

Can anyone explain simply what the Record/Replay approach is and how Moq differs? What are the pros and cons of each especially from the point of deciding a framework?

Thanks.

Answer 1

The Record/Replay approach is used by RhinoMocks. The basic idea is that your test execution is divided into two phases, the record and the replay fase. To be a little bit more concrete

var repo = new MockRepository();
var dependency = repo.DynamicMock<IDependency>();
With.Mocks(repo).Expecting(delegate
             {
              Expect.Call(dependency.AMethod(1)).Return(result);        
             }).Verify(delegate
               {
                var sut = new Sut(wrappee);
                sut.DoStuffThatCallsAMethod();
               Assert.IsTrue(sut.ResultState);
           });

So the Expecting block is the Record phase and the Verify block is the Replay phase.

The Moq variant of this code would be

var dependency = new Mock<IDependency>();
dependency.Expect(dep => dep.AMethod(1)).Returns(result);       
var sut = new Sut(wrappee.Object);
sut.DoStuffThatCallsAMethod();
Assert.IsTrue(sut.ResultState);

Which as you can see is much nicer to read. I used to use RhinoMocks but since I discovered Moq I only use Moq. I find it to be produce much more readable code. So my advice would be to go for Moq.

Answer 2

I've gone right off Record/Replay because it makes it hard to see in the setup what's stubbed/mocked or just running code. I believe that Rhino has multiple ways of working. In particular, you can use a using() block to isolate setup from other calls.