Paul Rubin <http://[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Alex Martelli) writes: > > ap.py:4: No global (test) found > > ap.py:5: Local variable (ego1d) not used > > Helen:/tmp alex$ > > > > If you're so typo-prone and averse to unittests that you consider this > > kind of issue to be a serious problem, just use pychecker and get > > informed about any such typo, just as above. > > That's very helpful, but why isn't it built into Python? Because some users will prefer to use a different approach to checking, for example, such as pylint (much more thorough in enforcing coding rules and checking for all sort of things) or nothing (much faster than pychecker, which in turn is faster than pylint). Just as for other programming tools, such as, say, an editor, I think it's wise to avoid excessive and premature standardization on one specific tool to the detriment of others. (IDLE is "bundled with" Python, but not _built into_ it -- indeed some would claim that the bundling was too much). Not all tools need evolve at the same speed as the core language, which currently follows a wise policy of "major" releases (2.3, 2.4, etc) about 18 to 24 months apart, and NO feature changes for "point" release (2.4.2 has exactly the same features as 2.4.1 -- it just fixes more bugs). Any tool which gets built into python (or, less strictly but still problematically, is separate but bundled with it) must get on exactly the same schedule and policy as Python itself, and that is definitely not something that's necessarily appropriate. If you're worried about the end-users which can't be bothered to download tools (and, for that matter, libraries) separately from the main language, the solution is "sumo releases" -- Enthought Python (from Enthought) being an extreme example, but Active Python (from ActiveState) comes with quite a few bundled add-ons, too. I believe that Linux has proven the validity of this general model: having the "core" (mostly the kernel, in Linux's case; the language and standard library, in Python's) evolve and get released as its own speed, and having _distributions_ bundling the core with different set of tools and add-ons get released on THEIR preferred schedules, independently. Alex -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
