[Python-Dev] Breaking Test Cases on Purpose

[Fredrik Lundh]

moshe:
> > The XP answer would be "hey, you have to checkin the breaking
> > test case right away", and I'm inclined to agree.

tim:
> It's abhorrent to me to ever leave the tree in a state where a test is
> "expected to fail".  If it's left in a failing state for a brief =
period, at
> best other developers will waste time wondering whether it's due to
> something they did

note that we've just seen this in action, in the SRE crash thread.

Andrew checked in a test that caused the test suite to bomb, and
sent me and Mark F. looking for an non-existing portability bug...

> You can check in an anti-test right away, though:  a test that passes =
so
> long as the code remains broken <wink>.

which is what the new SRE test script does -- the day SRE supports
unlimited recursion (soon), the test script will complain...

</F>