[Distutils] Where should I put tests when packaging python modules?

[Erik Bray]

On Tue, Oct 6, 2015 at 8:34 AM, Ionel Cristian Mărieș
<contact at ionelmc.ro> wrote:
> On Tue, Oct 6, 2015 at 3:13 PM, Antoine Pitrou <solipsis at pitrou.net> wrote:
>>
>> On Tue, 6 Oct 2015 07:07:31 -0400
>> Donald Stufft <donald at stufft.io> wrote:
>> >
>> > I've never, in my entire life [...]
>>
>> Can I suggest your entire life is an anecdotal data point here?
>
>
> Make that two anecdotal data points :-)
>
>> Any number of things can be described as trivial depending on the
>> skillset and patience of the user.  When users report a bug, they are
>> not expecting to be asked to download and "untar" stuff.  Not every
>> user is a programmer.
>
> But seriously now, your arguments are also anecdotal. Lets not pretend we're
> objective here. That sort of attitude is disingenuous and will quickly
> devolve this discussion to mere ad hominems.

Okay, though, so maybe if there is nothing to offer here but anecdata
then maybe we should stop acting like there's "one right way here".  I
have projects that install their test suite and test dependencies
because it is frequently useful to ask users to run a self-test (and
users themselves want to be able to do it for a variety of reasons).

There are other projects where it doesn't make sense, and those don't
have to install the tests (I still think in those cases that the tests
should live in the package instead of outside it, but simply not
installed).

In any case, let's not get trapped into endless circular discussions
about what is correct, period, and instead consider individual use
cases--not dismissing individual projects' or peoples' experiences and
needs--and discuss what the most appropriate action is for those uses
cases.  Python projects are not monolithic in their audiences (and
that includes developer audiences and user audiences).

Erik