[Python-Dev] unittest's redundant assertions: asserts vs. failIf/Unlesses

[Stephen J. Turnbull]

Steve Holden writes:

 > "Fail" isn't a negative. As Guido said, it's a description of the test 
 > behavior under particular circumstances.

This is not true, however.  "Fail" is a description of a potentailly
very large class of behaviors.  Knowing that the test failed does not
tell you which of the failure behaviors occurred, only that the
success behavior did not occur.

The analogy to the fact that True != not not 10 is telling, I think.