On 09:37 pm, ra...@twistedmatrix.com wrote: >On Tue, Nov 1, 2011 at 5:29 PM, Anton Gyllenberg <an...@iki.fi> wrote: >>On Tue, Nov 1, 2011 at 20:48, Glyph <gl...@twistedmatrix.com> wrote: >> > On Nov 1, 2011, at 12:14 PM, Phil Mayers wrote: >> >> I find the "pass reactor as 1st argument to everything" API pattern >> >> messy. I'm sure there's a good reason. What is it? >> > >> > This pattern is a solution to the problem, but I agree that it is >>possibly not the optimal solution. It sort of points in a direction >>where >>every possible module that might be imported becomes an argument to >>your >>function. After all, there are plenty of other modules which have to >>be >>mocked for testing, why not just make everyone's __init__ method take >>sys.modules as an argument too, and never import anything? In more >>complex >>systems this can definitely turn into a bit of a mess. >> >>I've often wondered whether there is a *real* use of the reactor >>argument other than unit testing. I haven't had other uses for it, and >>haven't seen (or perhaps not understood) real application code making >>use of it. Now, I've sometimes made an argument for unit testing, >>other than the obvious quality assurance, that unit tested code will >>be more reusable and have better interfaces as it already is used for >>at least two things: the real application and the unit test. However, >>if accommodating unit testing requires sacrificing the natural >>interface, then that kind of takes the edge off that argument. >> >>Thanks to everybody for the discussion and input. Very informative! >Here's the thing: not only does removing the global reactor make *our* >unit >tests a lot nicer, it makes the unit tests of our users much easier to >write, since they will want to use our APIs in their unit tests in a >way >that doesn't require ugly global hacking. I don't know how many times I >have raged at some crappy library whose code is incompatible with >consumer >unit testing. Having testable interfaces is a really valuable feature >we >can provide to our users.
To emphasize, having testable interfaces is a *really* *really* valuable feature we can provide to our users. If you're a Twisted user and you're not taking advantage of it, you're missing out on a lot. Jean-Paul _______________________________________________ Twisted-Python mailing list Twisted-Python@twistedmatrix.com http://twistedmatrix.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/twisted-python
