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Testing Frameworks in Python
An anonymous reader writes "This article looks at Python's two standard modules for unit testing: unittest and doctest. These modules expand on the capability of the built-in assert statement, which is used for validation of pre-conditions and post-conditions within functions. The author discusses the best ways to incorporate testing into Python development, weighing the advantages of different styles for different types of projects."
...in Bret Pettichord's Scripting for Testers one day class.
It talks about eliminating some of the tediousness from testing web applications, mainly by using automated solutions like WTR.
He's also got a list of testing resources that's got some good stuff in there...
The Army reading list
A few thoughts:
1. I've never had a problem with memory management in python. Can't say it doesn't exist, just never impacted my production applications.
2. Implementing great built-in test frameworks doesn't need to wait for memory management improvements. I'm seeing almost immediate pay-offs from this kind of built-in testing.
3. I'm implementing python as an alternative to java in large applications - with complete success. Easy to learn, easy to maintain, fast enough to handle millions of rows of data a day - what's not to like?
True programmers never test their code, that is for people who are unsure of themselves and who should not be trusted
Despite that fact that you are clearly trolling I think there's a valid point in what you are saying: there are programmers who think that they are too good to write unit or system tests for their code. And that's a real danger.
The adage "a line of untested code is a line of broken code" is so often true that I still find it scary when examining untested code. It's just amazing how much of a difference the discipline of writing automatic unit tests makes in improving code.
If you think you are too good to write tests, then perhaps you are too good for the software industry?
John.
You're not a "long time Python developer." Far from it. You may qualify as a "python developer from a long time ago," though -- in fact, that seems likely, given that the page you linked was last modified in 1999.
:)
It's Guido van Rossum, not Guido van Sustren. And Python's garbage collector works fine on cycles, as it has done since 2.0, iirc. The only way you'll get a memory leak with Python these days is by writing a C module that forgets some DECREFs or by writing cyclic objects with __del__ methods, and even in the latter case, you can easily take care of your leaks by breaking the cycle yourself.
You're uninformed and incorrect; take your troll to the next Perl story, please
Jeremy
Looking for a Python IRC bot?
It is clear you do not know anything about Python. You are not a long-time Python developer but rather a troll. The first hint is that you misspell Guido Van Rossum's name.
The second hint is that you cite a page from 1999. A Python developer would know that that was before Python had cyclic garbage collection. Here is an article from 2001 that describes how the issue was fixed.
The third hint is that you point to a page that describes how to avoid creating a memory leak by appending an infinite number of items to a list. Guess what: appending an infinite number of items to a list causes a memory leak in Java, C++, C, assembly, Scheme, sh, Perl and every other programming language in the world. If you ask the computer to store a continually growing list of items, it will do so...in any language.
If you think that Python can leak memory in circumstances where other languages would not, post an example program and we'll all test it out.