isort has a confused idea of alphabetical order

[alexwlchan]

Two examples:

1. https://travis-ci.org/HypothesisWorks/hypothesis-python/jobs/224768835

   What definition of alphabetical sorts from hypothesis import given, example instead of example, given?

2. https://github.com/HypothesisWorks/hypothesis-python/blob/master/src/hypothesis/internal/reflection.py#L24

   import re
   import ast
   import types
   import hashlib
   import inspect

   Wut.

[DRMacIver]

No, that's our configuration: The sort order is shortest first then ties broken alphabetically.

It's probably worth changing that given the number of people it has confused. I don't really have any strong opinion in favour of it staying that way, it's just what I happened to pick early in the project and it's stayed that way by inertia.

That being said, I think I have spotted some cases where it's confused about sort order in our code recently.

[DRMacIver]

I guess one slightly tongue in cheek argument for this is that Hypothesis is designed for the combinatorial optimization problem of producing shortlex (that order) minimal examples, so it's thematically appropriate. 😉

But I genuinely don't really care and would happily accept a patch to change the order to a more normal one.

[alexwlchan]

The sort order is shortest first then ties broken alphabetically.

That’s a bizarre convention, but it explains so much.

Multiple times I’ve tried to get the imports right by eye, only for isort to suggest what seems like an utterly random ordering.

[DRMacIver]

That’s a bizarre convention

I find it kinda aesthetically pleasing because it groups similar complexity things together (it's really for across line sorting that I care about it, not within lines), but I admit it's an unusual life choice.

but it explains so much.

Sorry, I thought you knew that, or I'd have explained properly before. The confusing thing for me with isort recently was some of the ways in which it changed, not the fundamental sort order

[DRMacIver]

I'm going too close this as WAI, but feel free to propose a change if it still bugs you.