[Python-Dev] r87389 - in python/branches/py3k: Doc/library/unittest.rst Lib/unittest/case.py Misc/NEWS

[Guido van Rossum]

On Sun, Dec 19, 2010 at 5:13 AM, Antoine Pitrou <solipsis at pitrou.net> wrote:
> On Sat, 18 Dec 2010 20:23:49 -0800
> Guido van Rossum <guido at python.org> wrote:
>> I may be unique, but I fear there is no great answer. On the one hand
>> I almost always code it as e.g. assertEqual(actual, expected), which
>> matches my preference for e.g. "if x == 5:" rather than "if 5 == x:".
>> On the other hand in those assert* functions that show a nice diff of
>> two lists, when reading such a diff my expectation is that "old, new"
>> corresponds to "expected, actual". Which then freaks me out until I
>> realize that I coded it as "actual, expected"... And yet "expected,
>> actual" still looks weird to me. :-(
>
> This could be nicely resolved by renaming the arguments "a" and "b",
> and having the diff display "a, b". It's quite natural (both the diff
> ordering and the arguments ordering), and they are consistent with each
> other.

So 'a' stands for 'after' and 'b' for 'before', right? :-)

-- 
--Guido van Rossum (python.org/~guido)