On 2010-02-11 16:20 PM, Ben Finney wrote:
Guido van Rossum<gu...@python.org> writes:
The argument that a unittest framework shouldn't be "abused" for
regression tests (or integration tests, or whatever) is also bizarre
to my mind. Surely if a testing framework applies to multiple kinds of
testing that's a good thing, not something to be frowned upon?
To my mind, an API should take a stand on the “right” way to use it,
rather than being a kitchen-sink of whatever ideas had any support.
Doing something the right way should be easy, and doing something the
wrong way should be awkward.
setUpClass and setUpModule are the "right" way to do many types of integration
and functional tests. Integration and functional tests are vital tasks to
perform, and unittest provides a good framework otherwise for implementing such
tests.
There are several alternative testing frameworks available outside the
standard library. The provide useful competition with the stlib's
unittest and doctest modules, and useful inspiration for potential new
features. They also, by and large, evolve much faster than a stdlib
module ever could, and including anyone of these in the stdlib might
well be the death of it (just as unittest has evolved much slower
since it was included).
Right. This is an argument in favour of being assertive and parsimonious
in the design of the standard-library ‘unittest’ API: this is the clear
and obvious way to use this API, and if someone wants to do it a
different way there are alternatives available.
I would agree if the requirements for unit testing and integration/functional
tests were so different. However, unittest provides most of the necessary
infrastructure that is common to all of those kinds of testing. It's just that
the latter kinds of tests also could use setUpClass/setUpModule. It would be a
waste (and honestly kind of ridiculous) to force people to use a whole new
framework (which would duplicate unittest in almost its entirety) for want of
those two methods.
--
Robert Kern
"I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless enigma
that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as though it had
an underlying truth."
-- Umberto Eco
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