[Python-Dev] Function Hash: Check it in?

[Guido van Rossum]

> I'm starting to wonder what the tests really test: the language definition,
> or accidents of the implementation?

It's good to test conformance to the language definition, but this is
also a regression test for the implementation.  The "accidents of the
implementation" definitely need to be tested.  E.g. if we decide that
repr(s) uses \n rather than \012 or \x0a, this should be tested too.
The language definition gives the implementer a choice here; but once
the implementer has made a choice, it's good to have a test that tests
that this choice is implemented correctly.

Perhaps there should be several parts to the regression test,
e.g. language conformance, library conformance, platform-specific
features, and implementation conformance?

--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)