Re: [Pyunit-interest] Re: Pyunit-interest digest, Vol 1 #27 - 1 msg

[Steve P. <ste...@ya...>]

Pieter Nagel wrote:
> 
> Wouldn't it be better if, instead of test inheriting from TestCase
> so that you can ask a test: "Hey you! Inspect yourself for test
> methods and run yourself!", you just hand the test runner an
> arbitrary class and as *it*: "Here's a class. Inspect it for checkXXX
> methods and run them".

Isn't that what the 'makeSuite' function does?

The TestCase classes often include a number of different test methods, but
each instance, once created, is responsible for running only *one* of those
methods; hence the parameter. This is the (perhaps less-than-obvious)
distinction made between TestCases and TestSuites.

There are probably other ways to arrange matters, but the current way seems
to work for most people.

From what I've seen, most PyUnit test authors use 'makeSuite' to construct
suites from TestCase subclasses in which they have inserted multiple
'checkXXX' methods.

Your suggestion amounts to putting the 'makeSuite' function inside a TestCase,
which amounts to changing a TestCase into a TestSuite.

>   - The SUnit which Kent's group use internally is by now nothing
>     like the original one they published, and

Presumably the latest version of JUnit is representative of any changes they've
made. PyUnit is pretty much up to date with JUnit as far as I can tell, so
I don't think we're lagging too much.

>   - The XUnit community might have got themselves stuck on the 
>     "simplest thing that could possibly work", minus the benefit of
>     later refactorings, on the false assumption that they've been
>     handed an API that they may not change.

This is certainly a danger, but "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" suggests
caution so long as the needs of most people are catered for.

Thanks for taking the time to comment. Perhaps you'd like to submit a few
lines of code to show how you'd like the interface to look?

I'd also love to hear specific suggestions from anyone on the list about
possible improvements, now that you've all been using the package for a while.

Best wishes to all,

-Steve

-- 
Steve Purcell, Pythangelist
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