[TIP] Guidelines for where to put tests & how to package them

[C. Titus Brown]

On Sat, Feb 27, 2010 at 07:52:45PM +0000, Michael Foord wrote:
> On 27/02/2010 19:48, C. Titus Brown wrote:
>> On Sat, Feb 27, 2010 at 07:37:54PM +0000, Michael Foord wrote:
>>    
>>> On 27/02/2010 19:32, C. Titus Brown wrote:
>>>      
>>>> So where our goals differ is that you want to define a new convention
>>>> going forward (2.7+, 3.3+) and I want to document some convention that's
>>>> "good enough"&   backwards compatible to 2.4.
>>>>        
>>> I will strongly argue, and suspect Tarek will agree, that the
>>> recommended practise for Python 2.4+ users is to use distutils2. That
>>> way they can use the conventions that will just-work (tm) in future
>>> versions of Python. distutils2 and unittest2 are both maintaining
>>> compatibility with Python 2.4 specifically so they can be used in this
>>> way.
>>>      
>> Humm, why isn't this style of test running:
>>
>>    % python -m somepackage.tests.run
>>
>> a good solution that removes the need for using distutils2 for 2.4+ users?
>
> Because there are all sorts of good changes to packaging coming in  
> distutils2 for users of Python 2.4+ (kind of the point of it existing),  
> a standard test command being just one of them.

...for setup.py alone, which we are discussing in the other e-mail thread ;)

>> We should put something in the Hitchhiker's Guide to Packaging, which is
>> for 2.4+.  So far Tarek has avoided putting in "just use distutils2";
> Because the guide was started a while back and distutils2 only sprang  
> into existence after the language summit.

Hrrm, I guess we could just ask Tarek.  There have been substantial revisions
to the HGTP since that decision, which include this text, 

http://guide.python-distribute.org/introduction.html#current-state-of-packaging

"""
The distutils module provides the basics for packaging Python. Unfortunately,
the distutils module is riddled with problems, which is why a small group of
python developers are working on distutils2. However, until distutils2 is
complete it is recommended that the Developer either use pure distutils or the
Distribute package for packaging Python software.
"""

It's unclear to me if this means "please use distutils2, when it's complete,
for packaging in 2.4+" or if it means "once distutils2 is in the standard
library, please use that over distutils."

cheers,
--titus
-- 
C. Titus Brown, ctb at msu.edu