[Numpy-discussion] Code samples in docstrings mistaken as doctests

[Fernando Perez]

On Mon, Jun 23, 2008 at 1:03 AM, Stéfan van der Walt <stefan at sun.ac.za> wrote:
> 2008/6/23 Alan McIntyre <alan.mcintyre at gmail.com>:
>> Some docstrings have examples of how to use the function that aren't
>> executable code (see numpy.core.defmatrix.bmat for an example) in
>> their current form.  Should these examples have the ">>>" removed from
>> them to avoid them being picked up as doctests?
>
> The examples written for the random module warrants the same question.
>  First and foremost, the docstrings are there to illustrate to users
> how to use the code; second, to serve as tests.
>
> Example codes should run, but I'm not sure whether they should always
> be valid doctests.
>
> In the `bmat` example, I would remove the '>>>' like you suggested.

There's also the option of marking them so doctest skips them via

#doctest: +SKIP

http://docs.python.org/lib/doctest-options.html

Cheers,

f