[Python-ideas] lint in stdlib

[CTO]

[snip]

> My standard Windows 3.0.1 installation has Tools without the source
> tree.  It has 5 directories, including Scripts/, which has about 50 .py
> files, including 2to3. If *that* can go there, I see no reason why a
> syntax checker could not also.
>
> >>> AFAIK, and if some form of lint gets blessed by incorporation into
> >>> Python, then it needs to be available for all standard installs.
> >> Regardless, the stdlib is for modules to import, tools for programs that
> >>  run.
>
> > We blur that line all the time though (cf. timeit, pdb, pydoc,
> > webbrowser, runpy, probably others).
>
> > So I'd agree with Aahz that if python-dev is going to bless something
> > along these lines, it should be something worthy of inclusion in the
> > standard lib itself rather than just being dropped into the Tools directory.
>
> timit, pdb, webbrowser, amd runpy are importable modules that *also*
> have a command-line interface via "if __name__ == '__main__': ...".
> Pydoc might be also, but I could not be sure from the doc.  If the
> checker were written similarly, so that it could be imported and used
> from within a program to check another file, then I would agree that
> stdlib would be a place for it.
>
> tjr

[snip]

Skipping over some of the wrangling about where it goes for a minute,
is there any firm consensus on which tool to put in? I've only heard
back from pylint, and there seems to be a general feeling that that's
the strictest (and therefore best), but that its external dependencies
constitute a liability. Does anybody have a firm objection on that
score?

Geremy Condra