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 supported by RhinoMocks. The basic idea is that your test execution is divided into two phases, the record phase and the replay phase. 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.