[Python-Dev] trace.py and the obscurity of Tools/scripts/ (was: Unittest list) (original) (raw)

Tim Peters tim.one@comcast.net
Thu, 11 Apr 2002 14:00:48 -0400

[Guido]

Maybe more tools should follow the evolution of ndiff and migrate to the library (where ndiff lives on as difflib).

[Barry]

Probably so. I wonder if it makes sense to put them in a package (e.g. a `scripts' package)?

I don't see how that would be an improvement over leaving them in the scripts directory (which, btw, doesn't bother me a bit).

Migration to the library is likely counterproductive unless the code is rewritten to be a library. Like ndiff was extensively refactored by two people (me and David Goodger), over two release cycles, to restructure it as a collection of reusable classes and functions. Even so, a much smaller ndiff.py still lives in the scripts directory, because the specific application of these algorithms-- and cmdline interface --it supplies don't make sense in a general library module.