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

[Ben Finney]

"Stephen J. Turnbull" <stephen at xemacs.org> writes:

> The intuition that "fail" is a negative word is thus well-founded in
> standard usage.

That's not the same thing as "fail" being a negative word in the sense
meant by "double negative".

That is, "not fail" is not a double negative; nor is "fail if X is not
inside Y" a double negative. The use of "fail" in those phrases is a
action, a verb, not a "negative".

So, this issue of avoiding "fail" in order to "avoid double negatives"
has no basis in the use of "fail" in unittest.

-- 
 \          “It was half way to Rivendell when the drugs began to take |
  `\        hold” —Hunter S. Tolkien, _Fear and Loathing in Barad-Dûr_ |
_o__)                                                                  |
Ben Finney