alex23 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > So the basic answers I'm seeing that "do just fine" are: > > 1. Don't test private functions. > 2. Add functionality _to_ the private functions for testing. > 3. Change the interface for the purpose of testing. > > All of which seem exceptionally inefficient and run counter to the > whole purpose of unit testing.
It seems you have a different idea of what unit testing is for from me. Isn't the entire point of encapsulation to separate internal components from the external interface? Why would a unit test, the whole purpose of which is to assert some aspect of the external behaviour of the unit of code, care about how that code unit is implemented internally? If changing the internal, encapsulated components of a unit causes its external behaviour to change, that's a bug; either in the change made (it shouldn't have altered the external behaviour), or in the unit test asserting the wrong thing (it shouldn't be asserting anything about internal state of the code). -- \ “Try to become not a man of success, but try rather to become | `\ a man of value.” —Albert Einstein | _o__) | Ben Finney -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
