On a WhatsApp group that houses a community of data science and machine learning developers, I asked a question concerning the ability to mock an excel file. Turns out not everyone knows what "mock" means in dev-speak.

What is "mock"?

To explain this, we need a context. We've got Isaac who's desperately in need of money and has decided quite sadly to follow the path of money ritual to achieve his aim. Except his path is not what we can imagine...

He wants to take over Babalawo jobs by automating their work. He, being a developer creates a function that does something like so:

from typing import (
    Human, # doesn't really exist
    BodyPart, # doesn't really exist
    Dict
)

def prepare_sacrificial_being(person: Human) -> Dict[str, BodyPart]:
    head, mid, legs = *Human
    result = {
        "head": head,
        "mid": mid,
        "legs": legs
    }

    return result

Problem

Now Isaac wants to confirm that his function works. How can he do this without any of us being his victim?

Solution

What Isaac can do is to mock (create something that can replace) a human being instance and pass it to the function. That way he can confirm the function really commits murder without using real humans.

Conclusion

Yeah, so that's what "mock" is all about. Now you can waltz about communities throwing the fancy word about. If you're writing a real money ritual API, the use-case above will be very helpful.

Disclaimer: Isaac may exist, but his mission, goal, aim and objective isn't real. Neither is the function, prepare_sacrificial_being or the datatypes: Human and BodyParts. In addition, I am not responsible for the actions of those who might want to replicate such a mechanism.

Sleep well, child...