alt Hacker NewsThere are different kinds of mocks.
Check function XYZ is called, return abc when XYZ is called etc are the bad kind that people were bit badly by.
The good kind are a minimally correct fake implementation that doesn't really need any mocking library to build.
Tests should not be brittle and rigidly restate the order of function calls and expected responses. That's a whole lot of ceremony that doesn't really add confidence in the code because it does not catch many classes of errors, and requires pointless updates to match the implementation 1-1 everytime it is updated. It's effectively just writing the implementation twice, if you squint at it a bit.
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Why is check if XYZ is called with return value ABC bad, as long as XYZ is an interface method?
Why is a minimally correct fake any better than a mock in this context?
Mocks are not really about order of calls unless you are talking about different return values on different invocations. A fake simply moves the cheese to setting up data correctly, as your tests and logic change.
Not a huge difference either way.
The second way is usually referring to as "fakes", which are not a type of mocks but a (better) alternative to mocks.