lint for Python?

[Chris Rebert]

On Fri, Oct 3, 2008 at 2:38 PM, Pat <Pat at tanker.net> wrote:
> I've been searching for a good multi-module lint checker for Python and I
> haven't found one yet.
>
> Pylint does a decent job at checking for errors only within a single module.
>
> Here's one of my problems.  I have two modules.
>
> In module one, I have a function:
>
> def foo( host, userid, password ):
>    pass
>
> In module two, I call that function:
>
> foo( userid, password)
>
> lint doesn't find that error and it won't be caught until it's called while
> the program is running.  I don't want that error found at 3AM.
>
> I've never used a language that didn't catch that type of error.  I'm quite
> surprised that Python is being used by a number of major companies.  How you
> catch these types of errors?

In a word (or phrase rather): unit testing. Lots of unit testing,
which catches both silly errors like this and more complicated logic
errors.
Check out the 'unittest' module
[http://docs.python.org/library/unittest.html] and any of the many
writings on the subject for more information. And I'm sure some other
posters will respond with more thorough explanations.

Cheers,
Chris
-- 
Follow the path of the Iguana...
http://rebertia.com

>
> I've spoken to tech support at Wing and they weren't aware of a multi-module
> lint but they're considering putting their own lint into their IDE.
>
> Thank you
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>