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Wed Jul 16 07:25:12 CEST 2008 · https://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2008-July/081207.html

Greg Ewing wrote:
> Ben Finney wrote:
>> Nick Coghlan <ncoghlan at gmail.com> writes:
>>
>> > the shortest
>> > possible way of writing negative assertions (i.e. asserting that
>> > something is not the case) is to treat them as denials and use the
>> > single word 'deny'.
>>
>> This, to me, is neither intuitive nor meaningful in context. The term
>> "deny" is strongly linked to its antonym, "permit".
> 
> "Deny" also has the meaning of claiming that something is
> not true (as in "deny an allegation"). When used that way,
> it's not an antonym of "permit".
> 
> However, that meaning doesn't quite seem to fit here, as
> we don't just want to claim that the condition is false,
> but *ensure* that it's false. I can't think of a single
> word offhand that means that.

That was the meaning I was going for, but I agree that it doesn't quite 
fit well enough to make it a good idea. There's a reason I put that 
disclaimer at the top of the message :)

What did you think of the "check" idea at the end of the email?

Test assertions:
   check(x).almost_equal(y)
   check(x).is_(y)
   check(x).in_(y)
   check(x).equals(y)

Test negative assertions:
   check(x).not_almost_equal(y)
   check(x).is_not(y)
   check(x).not_in(y)
   check(x).not_equal(y)

Cheers,
Nick.

-- 
Nick Coghlan   |   ncoghlan at gmail.com   |   Brisbane, Australia
---------------------------------------------------------------
             http://www.boredomandlaziness.org

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Consolidating names and classes in the `unittest`module (updated 2008-07-15)