[Reportbug-maint] Bug#890680: Bug#890680: reportbug: python3-reportbug submodules are not well documented

[Nis Martensen]

Hey Sandro!

On 18-02-2018 05:49, Sandro Tosi wrote:
> Hey Nis!
> 
>> The reportbug source code has some issues that make it hard to review:
> 
> 
> thanks for working on this! even if i dont want to mess with your
> plans, let me tell you that if you really want to work on this "qa"
> kind-of activity for reportbug, i think the area that will give the
> biggest impact is improvements to the test suite: currently part of
> the code is not covered well (or at all) and i did a poor job at
> adding tests for bugs that were filed and fixed; also i've always
> wished to be able to test the interactive part in reportbug (maybe
> mocking the input method).

Extending the test suite is actually the goal here. It's just hard to
add tests for functions of which you don't know what they're supposed to
do exactly. So reading the code and taking notes is the first step.

>>  - Most functions in reportbug/*.py do not have a docstring, or only a very
>>    brief one. Some functions still have many parameters, and some return quite
>>    complex objects.
>>  - module-internal functions are not prefixed with an underscore, so it is hard
>>    to tell which functions are meant for external use.
> 
> can we do something now, though? as of now they are all public
> functions, removing them by making them private can break someone's
> code (ok ok it's rather remote possibility but still)

You are of course correct. `apt-cache rdepends python3-reportbug` only
lists reportbug, though.  I also spent some time searching with
codesearch.debian.net some weeks ago, and couldn't find anything else.
I believe it is quite unlikely that there are any users outside debian.

The current patch set includes making functions private. Let me know if
you don't want this part.

>> I'm slowly working on patches.
> 
> i would suggest to submit of your early patches soon, so that i can
> have a look and eventually comment earlier

It is quite a lot already. Will send later today.

Are you planning to move reportbug to salsa in the future?  It might
make this kind of review easier.

 Nis