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

[Tres Seaver]

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Ben Finney wrote:
> "Stephen J. Turnbull" <stephen at xemacs.org> writes:
> 
>> Terry Reedy writes:
>>
>>  > For the community as a whole, all stdlib modules are suggestions
>>  > and examples, not commands.
>>
>> Well, even if "standard" is too strong a word, the DeprecationWarnings
>> and eventual removal of the methods surely constitute an imposition.
> 
> I understood Terry's statement as meaning that there is no commandment
> to use the standard library 'unittest' module at all. If a user
> doesn't like the behaviour of a module (such as 'unittest') in the
> standard library, they can accept the burden of implementing one that
> behaves the way they like.

One might argue that making gratutiously backward-incompatible changes
to the existing 'unittest' module should fall under that heading:
stability in that package is going to be crucial for projects which have
any hope of making it across the 2-to-3 gulf, and they won't all get
there at once.

If camelCase / duplicated names are such a pain, write a *new* module,
'unittest2', and port Python's tests to use it, thereby leaving the much
larger volume of not-in-Python tests still working.  One might then
remove the 'unittest' module in a later release, packaging it as a
standalone distibution for the projects which still need it.


Tres.
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Tres Seaver          +1 540-429-0999          tseaver at palladion.com
Palladion Software   "Excellence by Design"    http://palladion.com
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