2016-02-29_lib-for-all

# Lib for all

Someone recently commented on one of my pull requests saying they did not agree with the following line of code:

    config.autoload_paths << "#{Rails.root}/lib"
    
Preferring instead to require the library when/where it is used. With a similar comment that ```spec_helper.rb``` 
was superior to ```rails_helper.rb``` as the whole rails environment should not be required.

**NOTE:** I am ignoring the speed arguement around loading rails in test for the purpose of this post.

The issue that I see here is that tests are now being running in a different environment to production! because if 
you have a rails application then production will have loaded rails. If a library is required in any of the rails 
models/classes then the library is in fact global. 

As such this sort of scoping just adds to confusion as you need to search the application for the require. 

I am not arguing that scoping in code is bad, I also not suggesting that having multiple dependancies between you 
code is good practice. What I am saying is that explicitly requiring libraries, and not loading rails when running your
tests does not provide that component have better isolation. 

Better isolation of code and reduced inter-dependancy - like so many thing with coding - is achieved by self-disipline
when building the system.

In closing can we remember that the goal of code is to help simplify life, and in my opinion, a key purpose of using a 
framework is to simplify the process of writing code. Why then would I avoid a tool like autoload paths to include my 
library code within the application. For those purists out there that disagree, can I suggest you extract the library 
into a gem and then include that.