[Python-ideas] float comparison in doctest

[Terry Reedy]

On 8/11/2014 12:25 PM, Kevin Davies wrote:
> Erik Bray has created a nifty addition to doctest to compare floating
> point numbers using a `+FLOAT_CMP` flag.

The problem with a simple flag is that almost_equal should sometimes be 
absolute and sometimes relative and in both cases a parameter in needed. 
I think there have been vague proposals for a float method, but
"a - b < delta" is shorter than "a.almost_equat(b, abs=delta)" and 
probably easier to understand.

 > It is implemented within
> Astropy (http://www.astropy.org/) and the related issue is
> https://github.com/astropy/astropy/issues/2662.

The related issue is applying flags to a block of test with a Sphinx 
directive.

> According to Erik, it
> may need some tweaks, but I think it would be a really useful feature to
> make available in the doctest package itself.

Erik would have to offer his code.

-- 
Terry Jan Reedy