[issue29686] Unittest - Return empty string instead of None object on shortDescription()

2017-03-07 Thread Vinícius Dantas 

Vinícius Dantas added the comment:

In the point of view of a tester, if it's an error, they will know right
away it is a test case problem, not an assert problem. That makes debugging
easier.
It is also important to note that, if it's an AssertionError, we may add a
message. While, if it is an error, no message would be displayed but the
original Exception's.

As Selenium's example, as I said, was just a use case example.

Finally, having the failure reason explicit is better than keeping it
implicit.

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[issue29686] Unittest - Return empty string instead of None object on shortDescription()

2017-03-01 Thread R. David Murray 

R. David Murray added the comment:

We don't make breaking changes unless there is strong motivation, which is 
lacking here.

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nosy: +r.david.murray

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[issue29686] Unittest - Return empty string instead of None object on shortDescription()

2017-03-01 Thread Vinícius Dantas 

Vinícius Dantas added the comment:

If it is tagged for future releases, whoever choose to update their Python
version should expect code breaking and API changes, shouldn't them? I
don't see code breaking as an issue against this request.

On 1 March 2017 at 14:33, Raymond Hettinger  wrote:

>
> Raymond Hettinger added the comment:
>
> It's too late to change this API.  As Serhiy says, it risks breaking code
> that is currently running and correct.
>
> Note the the __doc__ on functions is set to None when there is no
> docstring.  For better or worse, returning None is common in the Python
> world.
>
> --
> nosy: +rhettinger
> resolution:  -> rejected
> stage:  -> resolved
> status: open -> closed
>
> ___
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-- 
Vinícius Dantas de Lima Melo
Graduando em Ciências e Tecnologia
Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN)
Escola de Ciências e Tecnologia (ECT)
Natal, Rio Grande do Norte
vinicius.gpp...@gmail.com viniciusdan...@bct.ect.ufrn.br
vinicius.dantasdelimam...@mail.utoronto.ca | Celular/Mobile Phone: +1 647
447 5737
Skype: viniciusdantas01

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[issue29686] Unittest - Return empty string instead of None object on shortDescription()

2017-03-01 Thread Raymond Hettinger 

Raymond Hettinger added the comment:

It's too late to change this API.  As Serhiy says, it risks breaking code that 
is currently running and correct.

Note the the __doc__ on functions is set to None when there is no docstring.  
For better or worse, returning None is common in the Python world.

--
nosy: +rhettinger
resolution:  -> rejected
stage:  -> resolved
status: open -> closed

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[issue29686] Unittest - Return empty string instead of None object on shortDescription()

2017-03-01 Thread Serhiy Storchaka 

Serhiy Storchaka added the comment:

This can break a code that checks whether shortDescription() is None.

If you an empty string rather than None, just use the expression 
`shortDescription() or ''`.

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nosy: +serhiy.storchaka

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[issue29686] Unittest - Return empty string instead of None object on shortDescription()

2017-03-01 Thread Vinícius Dantas 

Changes by Vinícius Dantas :


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pull_requests: +319

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[issue29686] Unittest - Return empty string instead of None object on shortDescription()

2017-03-01 Thread Vinícius Dantas 

New submission from Vinícius Dantas:

I have been browsing around the unittest standard library, and I realized that 
TestCase's shortDescription() method at lib/pythonX.X/unittest/case.py returns 
None when the there is no docstring on the test that is running.
As shortDescription() should obviously return a string, I would recommend 
returning an empty string instead of None when no docstring is found.
This came to mind when I was using testscenario package, which only displays 
the scenarioname when shortDescription() returns something but None.
When we are starting from scratch a test suite, docstrings are left for another 
stage, when we have running (probably failed, if we are TDDing) unittests.
Last yet not least, I am sure it's a good practice to avoid returning None, 
which forces None-checks, returning empty strings, lists, objects of the return 
type expected from that function.

--
components: Tests
messages: 288763
nosy: viniciusd
priority: normal
severity: normal
status: open
title: Unittest - Return empty string instead of None object on 
shortDescription()
type: behavior
versions: Python 3.5

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