[Tutor] Conventions for code snippets for debugging and testing?

[Eric Walstad]

Hi Robert

On Thu, Apr 10, 2008 at 1:34 PM, Robert Kirkpatrick <robertk at bcgsc.ca> wrote:
> Hi All,
>
>  Just wondering if there are any basic conventions for including code
>  snippets that are for testing / debugging only?
>
>  For example, you could set a boolean variable called DEBUG, then have
>  snippets of code like:
>
>  if DEBUG:
>     do stuff
>  else:
>     do otherstuff
I'd do something like this:

from settings import DEBUG

def my_user_list()
    # assumes long_list is already populated (db, file, etc)
    if DEBUG:
        return long_list[:5]
    else:
        return long_list

def process(user):
    # do the work on the user here
    pass

def main():
    # ...
    [process(user) for user in my_user_list()]

The idea is to encapsulate the retrieval of the user list and let that
encapsulation hide the DEBUG logic.  It could be done with a function,
like above, or with a MyUserList class.