[Python-Dev] trace.py and the obscurity of Tools/scripts/ (was: Unittest list)

[Tim Peters]

[Guido]
> Maybe more tools should follow the evolution of ndiff and
> migrate to the library (where ndiff lives on as difflib).

[Barry]
> Probably so.  I wonder if it makes sense to put them in a package
> (e.g. a `scripts' package)?

I don't see how that would be an improvement over leaving them in the
scripts directory (which, btw, doesn't bother me a bit).

Migration to the library is likely counterproductive unless the code is
rewritten to *be* a library.  Like ndiff was extensively refactored by two
people (me and David Goodger), over two release cycles, to restructure it as
a collection of reusable classes and functions.  Even so, a much smaller
ndiff.py *still* lives in the scripts directory, because the specific
application of these algorithms-- and cmdline interface --it supplies don't
make sense in a general library module.