[Tutor] hashlib problems

[Steven D'Aprano]

On Sat, 11 Sep 2010 06:54:39 am Rance Hall wrote:

> I will apologize for the tone and using the word "bug" without
> sufficient evidence, and I will be more thorough in the future.

Using the word "bug" itself isn't the problem. Nor is it that you made a 
mistake -- we've all done that. A few days ago I wrote to the 
comp.lang.python newsgroup with what I was *convinced* was a bug in the 
doctest module. After somebody wrote back and said they didn't get the 
same results as me, I tried it again, and *I* couldn't get the same 
results as me!

You wrote:

"Either there is a bug in the module hashlib, or the module changed and 
the docs don't keep up."

But you neglected the third all-important option:

"...or I'm missing something here and have made a mistake."

Leaving out the third possibility makes all the difference in how people 
will react to you misdiagnosing a non-bug as a bug. Particularly if 
you're still a beginner, or a newbie to Python.

If you're Guido van Rossum (Python's creator), or the Timbot (Tim 
Peters, who designed Python's amazing sort routine), and you 
misdiagnose a bug, nobody will blink. We all make mistakes. But when 
you're a newbie (generic you, not you personally), and haven't learned 
the language yet, and you think you've spotted something which tens or 
hundreds of thousands of experienced Python coders have failed to 
notice *without* considering that maybe the bug is in *your* code, 
well, people will either write you off as arrogant or laugh in your 
face. (Still generic you.)

Anyway, welcome on board!


-- 
Steven D'Aprano