mockolate.org Documentation, examples, elaboration. Drew Bourne Contact.
This tagline is probably a hint that Mockolate is most useful when testing software. Whether you are doing test-driven-development, post-crunch-time fill-in-the-gaps, or exploratory-I-have-no-idea-what-is-going-on testing Mockolate can help.
A mock object can be used to simulate the behaviour of complex, real (non-mock) objects when using the real object would be impractical or impossible. Situations where a mock object would be useful:
The above is mostly appropriated from Mock Objects at Wikipedia. I could keep rewriting it here, but it's really quite a good read.
In espionage, spies infiltrate a system, recording and relaying information to their handlers. The handlers may use that information to check facts, inform others, or take action.
In testing, a Test Spy records which methods are called, which getters are got, which setters are set. The handler (typically a testcase) can then check the facts against what should or should not have happened and take action (typically an assertion).
Head over to http://mockolate.org/ for documentation and examples:
Richard Szalay with FLoxy, and Maxim Porges with Loom for their work on Class proxy generation.
Brian LeGros for hassling me about -mock-as3- enough that I added class proxy generation to it. Except you can ignore that project in favour of Mockolate.