The current fixtures helper function in merb/test/helper.rb assumes that fixtures are in File.dirname(FILE) + "/fixtures/#{name}.yaml". Which is a strange location.
The attached patch looks at the use_test variable defined in dependencies.rb to figure out which testing framework is preferred.
If using rspec it looks in Merb.root/spec/fixtures
If using test_unit it looks in Merb.root/test/fixtures
test_unit is the default.
The patch also creates accessor methods and instance variables for the given fixtures.
WARNING: I haven't tested this method fully because I get the following error when I try to use the existing fixtures method.
undefined method `fixtures' for Spec::Example::ExampleGroup::Subclass_1:Class
