[TIP] Functions for tests instead of classes

[Michael Foord]

On 15/03/2010 18:21, Mark Sienkiewicz wrote:
> Michael Foord wrote:
>> On 15/03/2010 17:46, Pekka Klärck wrote:
>>> [snip...]
>>>> Then, to retain compatibility with older versions of unittest, the 
>>>> TestCase
>>>> object can contain a bunch of trivial methods like:
>>>>
>>>>    def assertEqual(self, a, b) :
>>>>       return assertEqual(a,b)
>>> Yep, keeping backwards compatibility would be trivial. Are there any
>>> good reasons not to do this?
>>
>> Per TestCase failureException is one reason.
>
> I don't understand what you mean.  (Or maybe, I do understand, but I 
> don't see how it is a problem.)
>
> You could have a module full of friendly assert functions, but if you 
> need a custom assert function for your object, you can still have 
> one.  After all, if your test contains a special assertEqual, you are 
> going to have to override the assertEqual in the base class -- i.e. 
> you write your own anyway.
>

What I mean is that the methods already access class (or instance) state 
- so you would need extra parameters to your assert functions or have to 
forgo that functionality.

In terms of a programmers API I don't really see any win though. Either 
you import *all* the assert functions, or you import the module and use 
'module.assert_equal'. You're not going to advocate "import *" surely? :-)

Michael

> Mark S.


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