[Python-Dev] PEP: Consolidating names and classes in the unittest module (updated 2008-07-15) (original) (raw)

Terry Reedy tjreedy at udel.edu
Tue Jul 15 19:09:05 CEST 2008

Stephen J. Turnbull wrote:

Yes, for the purposes of this PEP. We already know that many people want various different things. You want fail* /rather than/ assert*, but Steven d'Aprono wants /both/, and I prefer assert* /exclusively/. I don't see why we all shouldn't be satisfied[1], so the content of unittest should not set policy for our own projects. So there should be other modules (perhaps in the stdlib, perhaps not) to satisfy those preferences not catered to by stdlib's unittest.

It should be trivial to write a module 'unitfail' that would 'from unittest import *' and then flip the assert names to fail names. The only question is whether it needs to be in the stdlib or merely PyPI.

I word this this way because Guido has already blessed the assert forms for unittest. If he is persuaded otherwise, revise accordingly.

Thus this PEP should restrict it's concern to revising unittest to conform to PEPs and help standardize Python's own testing, without trying to impose standards on the whole community of Python users.

For the community as a whole, all stdlib modules are suggestions and examples, not commands.

tjr

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