The methods are the same; they are provided to make specs read in English nicer based on the body of your test. Consider these two:
describe Array do
describe "with 3 items" do
before { @arr = [1, 2, 3] }
specify { @arr.should_not be_empty }
specify { @arr.count.should eq(3) }
end
end
describe Array do
describe "with 3 items" do
subject { [1, 2, 3] }
it { should_not be_empty }
its(:count) { should eq(3) }
end
end