24. Development Tools

The modules described in this chapter help you write software. For example, the pydoc module takes a module and generates documentation based on the module’s contents. The doctest and unittest modules contains frameworks for writing unit tests that automatically exercise code and verify that the expected output is produced. 2to3 can translate Python 2.x source code into valid Python 3.x code.

The list of modules described in this chapter is:

• 24.1. pydoc — Documentation generator and online help system
• 24.2. doctest — Test interactive Python examples
  • 24.2.1. Simple Usage: Checking Examples in Docstrings
  • 24.2.2. Simple Usage: Checking Examples in a Text File
  • 24.2.3. How It Works
    • 24.2.3.1. Which Docstrings Are Examined?
    • 24.2.3.2. How are Docstring Examples Recognized?
    • 24.2.3.3. What’s the Execution Context?
    • 24.2.3.4. What About Exceptions?
    • 24.2.3.5. Option Flags and Directives
    • 24.2.3.6. Warnings
  • 24.2.4. Basic API
  • 24.2.5. Unittest API
  • 24.2.6. Advanced API
    • 24.2.6.1. DocTest Objects
    • 24.2.6.2. Example Objects
    • 24.2.6.3. DocTestFinder objects
    • 24.2.6.4. DocTestParser objects
    • 24.2.6.5. DocTestRunner objects
    • 24.2.6.6. OutputChecker objects
  • 24.2.7. Debugging
  • 24.2.8. Soapbox
• 24.3. test — Regression tests package for Python
  • 24.3.1. Writing Unit Tests for the test package
  • 24.3.2. Running tests using test.regrtest
• 24.4. test.test_support — Utility functions for tests