[Python-Dev] feature freeze questions

[Chris Jerdonek]

On Wed, Jul 25, 2012 at 4:29 PM, Benjamin Peterson <benjamin at python.org> wrote:
>> (2) When adding new tests (e.g. in the course of fixing a bug or
>> increasing test coverage), are we allowed to refactor other tests so
>> that supporting test code can be shared?  Or should the tests be added
>> in a less DRY fashion and refactored only after the branch goes back
>> to pre-alpha?
>
> You can do basically anything you want to tests just as long as you
> don't make them less stable.

Also, this response seems somewhat at odds to the response I got to a
patch that refactors part of regrest, fixes some bugs in it, and adds
its first unit tests (in particular, increasing code coverage):

http://bugs.python.org/issue15302

The regrtest module only affects tests (which I would think qualifies
it as "tests"), and this is borne out by the following documentation
note (which is essentially the same as the note for test.support):

"Note: The test package is meant for internal use by Python only. It
is documented for the benefit of the core developers of Python. Any
use of this package outside of Python’s standard library is
discouraged as code mentioned here can change or be removed without
notice between releases of Python.

"The test package contains all regression tests for Python as well as
the modules test.support and test.regrtest. test.support is used to
enhance your tests while test.regrtest drives the testing suite."

(from http://docs.python.org/dev/library/test.html#module-test )

--Chris