[Python-Dev] unittest: shortDescription, _TextTestResult and other issues

[Michael Foord]

On 09/02/2010 21:50, Ben Finney wrote:
> Michael Foord<michael at voidspace.org.uk>  writes:
>
>    
>> It seems to me that the same effect (always reporting test name) can
>> be achieved in _TextTestResult.getDescription(). I propose to revert
>> the change to TestCase.shortDescription() (which has both a horrible
>> name and a horrible implementation and should probably be renamed
>> getDocstring so that what it does is obvious but never mind) and put
>> the change into _TextTestResult.
>>      
> I understood the point of ‘TestCase.shortDescription’, and indeed the
> point of that particular name, was to be clear that some *other* text
> could be the short description for the test case. Indeed, this is what
> you've come up with: a different implementation for generating a short
> description.
>
> The default implementation uses *part of* the docstring (the PEP 257
> specified single-line summary), but that's just one possible way to make
> a short test case description. Calling it ‘getDocstring’ would not only
> be disruptive, but clearly false even in the default implementation.
>
>    
I'm not actually suggesting doing that - I was just musing out loud. So 
do you think the *new* implementation would be better, given that it 
breaks part of the twisted test suite, or would you be fine with me 
putting the current change into TestResult instead?

Given that the change broke something, and the desired effect can be 
gained with a different change, I don't really see a downside to the 
change I'm proposing (reverting shortDescription and moving the code 
that adds the test name to TestResult).

Michael

> I've overridden that method to provide better, more specific, test case
> short descriptions, and the name works fine since I'm providing an
> overridden implementation of “the short description of this test case”.
> I've even presented a patch to the third-party ‘testscenarios’ library
> to decorate the short description with the scenario name.
>
> I'd suggest this method, with its existing name, is the correct way to
> embellish test case descriptions for report output.
>
>    


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