Terry J. Reedy added the comment: Three years later, I do understand 'circular'. Such cut-and-paste whitebox tests tend to simultaneously test too much -- the particular implementation(1) -- and too little -- the actual specification(2).
(1) The test would falsely fail if a string were reordered but still correct. (2) The test would falsely pass is any of the existing strings were incorrect. Most of the strings have a specification other than the existing string and all can be tested in an order free manner. Hexdigits example: import string assert len(set(string.hexdigits)) == 22 for c in string.hexdigits: assert '0' <= c <= '9' or 'a' <= c <= 'f' or 'A' <= c <= 'F' I would be willing to push such a patch. I would also be willing to close this now. ---------- keywords: +easy stage: -> needs patch type: behavior -> enhancement _______________________________________ Python tracker <rep...@bugs.python.org> <http://bugs.python.org/issue11754> _______________________________________ _______________________________________________ Python-bugs-list mailing list Unsubscribe: https://mail.python.org/mailman/options/python-bugs-list/archive%40mail-archive.com