the standard unit testing framework for Python (original) (raw)

Python

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Author: Steve Purcell, Pythangelist,Available for Python & Ruby On Rails consulting/training

Latest release: 1.4.1, 10th August 2001 (download) (notes)

Documentation: [English] [Japanese] [Chinese] [Serbo-Croatian] [Hungarian (courtesy of Zsolt Boros)]

This unit testing framework, dubbed 'PyUnit' by convention, is a Python language version of JUnit. JUnit was written by smart cookies Kent Beck and Erich Gamma, and is, in turn, a Java version of Kent's Smalltalk testing framework. Each is the de facto standard unit testing framework for its respective language, and therefore both are a strong basis for an effective and elegant Python framework.

News

10th June 2013 -- Serbo-Croatian translation of the PyUnit documentation by Anja Skrba from Webhostinggeeks.com

4th December 2007 -- Chinese translation of the PyUnit documentation submitted by Bing Yuan

22nd June 2004 -- Double-clickable application bundle for OS-X by Kevin Walzer

19th July 2002 -- Cocoa test GUI for Mac OS X users from Dinu Gherman

10th December 2001 -- Japanese translation of the PyUnit documentation submitted by Suzuki Hisao

6th August 2001 -- the much-delayed stand-alone release of the PyUnit version bundled with Python 2.1

June 2001 -- Mark Pilgrim has written an amazing chapter about unit testing using PyUnitas part of his online Python book "Dive Into Python".

28th March 2001 -- PyUnit featured in Stephen Figgins' article 'Extreme Python' on the O'Reilly Network

23rd March 2001 -- PyUnit is included in the Python Standard Library as of today's Python 2.1 release. More information about this can be found in this postingto the pyunit-interest mailing list.

Testimonials

"PyUnit is cool. It's helping us find lots of bugs." --Jim Fulton, Digital Creations

"I am really impressed with the effect of unit testing on the quality of my code since I started using PyUnit about two months ago. I know that the extra effort has saved me literally days of looking for subtle bugs. Writing the unit tests first is also a very good innoculation against over-engineering." -- Terrel Shumway

What is it?

Some quick facts about PyUnit:-

Where can I get it?

Update: Unless you're stuck in the year 2000, PyUnit is in your Python standard library as module unittest.

The framework is currently two Python source modules (i.e. no messy installation) and is packaged for download together with documentation and examples. The documentation provides a cookbook for writing tests, usage guidelines, known issues, future plans, and links to sources of related information.

Feedback and discussion via themailing listis encouraged. This low-volume list is a good place to discuss PyUnit, to ask others about their practises, and to share your wisdom.

Important note for Windows users

Please note that the PythonWin IDE and Tkinter do not co-exist happily. This means the PyUnit GUI should not be run from within PythonWin, otherwise a crash is possible. Instead, run it separately using the standardpython.exe or pythonw.exe, or by double-clicking on unittestgui.py in Explorer.

(Of course, using the text mode of PyUnit from PythonWin will work just fine.)

Projects using PyUnit

Some known projects and groups reportedly using PyUnit are:

The gossip

Recent mentions of PyUnit:

Contacting me

Feel free to send me e-mail usingthis formor directly to: steve at pythonconsulting dot com.

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Last modified: 2013-06-10
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