[TIP] why you should distribute tests with your application / module

[Michael Gratton]

Hi Kumar,

On Tue, 2008-09-16 at 13:50 -0500, Kumar McMillan wrote:
> What do you lose by distributing tests with your package?  10k of disk
> space?  I can't think of anything else.

With a source distribution? Absolutely - if you're giving people the
source and a way to build it then shipping the tests is vital. If you're
giving people the ability to hack on your code, then not including tests
disadvantages both them (they don't get to test their changes) and you
(if they contribute back to the project, it might be buggy).

However there is no point if you're shipping a "binary" distribution.
While this seems an odd distinction to make for Python programs,
distributing it as eggs, in deb/rpms or compiled to an exe effectively
are binary. In these scenarios people who download them clearly aren't
interested in modifying them, so including the tests here is pointless.

/Mike

-- 
Michael Gratton <michael at quuxo.com>     
Quuxo Software <http://web.quuxo.com/>
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