[Python-Dev] Direction of PyChecker

[Jeremy Hylton]

>>>>> "GvR" == Guido van Rossum <guido@python.org> writes:

  >> Specifically, where should it go?  What should it include or not
  >> include?  What should the default warnings be?

  GvR> You'll never satisfy everyone.  Personally, I write too much
  GvR> code without docstrings, so I find the complaints about missing
  GvR> docstrings annoying.  I guess my preference would be to have
  GvR> the default mode ony complain about things that have a high
  GvR> probability of being *coding* errors -- undefined names and the
  GvR> like.  I forget if you're checking string formatting
  GvR> conformance yet -- that would also be useful.

It would be much more helpful if the default setting identified real
bugs rather than coding style issues.  The doc string one is probably
the most glaring.  Add a -Wall option that turns on everything to
satisfy the pedants.

By way of example, I used pychecker on urllib2 yesterday.  It reported
78 bugs of which 3 were real.  Based on that feedback, I wouldn't use
the tool again, but would let other people sift through the noise and
report the bugs back to me.

Jeremy