[Python-Dev] PEP: Consolidating names and classes in the `unittest` module (updated 2008-07-15)

[Richard Thomas]

On Tue, Jul 15, 2008 at 2:48 PM, Ben Finney <ben+python at benfinney.id.au> wrote:
> So far I have "precedent and tradition" and "positive admonition looks
> better" in support of preferring the 'assert*' names. Are there any
> others?

I've been told by a couple of non-programmers that "failUnless" is
more intuitive than "assert" if only for the reason that its unclear
what "assert" might do. This is similar to one of the arguments raised
in the PEP, but considered from the point of view of someone new to
test frameworks it could be all the more important.

On another note, while I understand that consistency is a good thing
is it really that important in test suites? Obviously the unittest
module itself should be internally consistent but why not provide
people using the all the synonyms they might want? I can see people
just wrapping TestCase to add the synonyms back in.

Richard