[Python-Dev] How far to go with user-friendliness

[ISAAC J SCHWABACHER]

From: Python-Dev <python-dev-bounces+ischwabacher=wisc.edu at python.org> on behalf of Ben Finney <ben+python at benfinney.id.au>
Sent: Thursday, July 16, 2015 15:59
To: python-dev at python.org
Subject: Re: [Python-Dev] How far to go with user-friendliness

> Ethan Furman <ethan at stoneleaf.us> writes:
> 
> > On 07/16/2015 01:29 PM, Michael Foord wrote:
> > > On Tuesday, 14 July 2015, Christie Wilson wrote:
> >
> > >> Unless the line silently executes and they don't notice the mistake for years :'(
> > >
> > > Indeed. This has been a problem with mock, misspelled (usually misremembered) assert methods silently did nothing.
> > >
> > > With this fix in place several failing tests were revealed in code bases!
> >
> > This is good.  :)
> 
> It's good that bugs were found. That does not argue for making an alias
> in the library, though; it better argues for those projects adding a
> linter check for the common misspellings.
> 
> > > As for assret, it's the common misspelling people have told me
> > > about. It seems a ridiculous thing for people to get worked up
> > > about, but people enjoy getting worked up.
> 
> Advocating for a clean API is ridiculous? That's a disturbing attitude
> to hear from a Python standard library contributor.
> 
> > On the serious side, Python is not a DWIM language, and making
> > accommodations for a misspelling feels very DWIMish. As I said in an
> > earlier email part of writing good tests is double-checking that a
> > test is failing (and for the right reasons). And yes, I am guilty of
> > writing bad tests, and getting bit by it, and no, I still don't want
> > the testing framework (or any part of Python) guessing what I meant.
> 
> +1.
> 
> These checks are a good thing, but they belong in a linter tool not as
> aliases in the API.

+1

> --
>  \      “You say “Carmina”, and I say “Burana”, You say “Fortuna”, and |
>   `\    I say “cantata”, Carmina, Burana, Fortuna, cantata, Let's Carl |
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+1 000 000

ijs