PHPSpec
still describes.
An archive of a PHP testing culture. Spec-by-example. Green bars on a CRT. Drawers labeled DESCRIBE, IT, MATCHERS. The suite that taught objects to speak before they ran.
describe, then it
PHPSpec was never a pile of assertions. You described an object. You wrote examples. The generator filled in the class only after the sentences were true.
<?php
describe('Invoice', function () {
it('calculates totals from line items', function () {
$invoice = new Invoice();
$invoice->add(new Line('widget', 2, 10.00));
expect($invoice->total())->toBe(20.00);
});
it('refuses a negative quantity', function () {
$invoice = new Invoice();
expect(function () {
$invoice->add(new Line('widget', -1, 10.00));
})->toThrow(InvalidArgumentException::class);
});
});Open a subject. Everything else hangs off that noun.
One behavior. One sentence. One green bar if you told the truth.
Matchers as grammar: return, throw, beLike, haveCount.
The quiet of a passing suite
Before dashboards, a green bar meant the examples still held. PHPSpec printed that bar like a receipt. This site keeps the receipt in a drawer.
Card catalog for a testing culture
PHPSpec is historical now. The drawers still open. Spec-by-example still reads like a letter you meant to send the next maintainer.
DRAWER 01 · DESCRIBE
Name the object first
PHPSpec asked you to describe a class before you wrote it. The example was the spec. The spec was the design. The file was an archive of intent.
DRAWER 02 · IT
One example, one promise
it('calculates the total') was not a test name. It was a sentence. Matchers read like English. Failures read like a librarian catching a misfiled card.
DRAWER 03 · GREEN BARS
Phosphor, not dashboards
A suite that passed painted a green bar across the terminal. No badges. No waitlist. Just the quiet of a CRT that had nothing left to complain about.
Kept as an archive in The Robot Lives portfolio. No waitlist. No backend. Just examples, matchers, and the last green bar.