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

Ben Finney ben+python at benfinney.id.au
Wed Jul 16 00:41:47 CEST 2008


Nick Coghlan <ncoghlan at gmail.com> writes:

> A somewhat odd thought that occurred to me is that the shortest
> possible way of writing negative assertions (i.e. asserting that
> something is not the case) is to treat them as denials and use the
> single word 'deny'.

-1

This, to me, is neither intuitive nor meaningful in context. The term
"deny" is strongly linked to its antonym, "permit".

Whom is being denied? What have they asked to do that I am denying in
my test? I think in terms of "true or false", or "pass or fail". I'm
making statements about behaviour of the program, not about permitting
or denying something.

-- 
 \        “The industrial system is profoundly dependent on commercial |
  `\   television and could not exist in its present form without it.” |
_o__)        —John Kenneth Galbraith, _The New Industrial State_, 1967 |
Ben Finney



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