error message does not match error condition for nSeats

[GoogleCodeExporter]

See http://code.google.com/p/stv/source/browse/trunk/openstv/STV.py#167

Patch attached.

Original issue reported on code.google.com by twoggle@gmail.com on 2 Dec 2009 at 1:05

Attachments:

• seats_must_be_at_least_one.patch

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Patch looks correct, of course.  I suggest we move this off to a setter.  That 
way,
we can throw the error closer to where it's happening.  If, for example, 
somebody
passes in 0 to numSeats in runElection.py, there's no need for us to start the 
precount.

Original comment by dan.keshet@gmail.com on 2 Dec 2009 at 2:14

• Changed state: Accepted

[GoogleCodeExporter]

I committed the patch, but will defer changing the issue status.

Original comment by jlundell on 2 Dec 2009 at 10:11

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Dan, what would you do in the setter if someone tried to do nSeats=0?  Would you
raise an exception, set to the minimum acceptable value of 1, or something else?

Original comment by jeff.oneill on 5 Dec 2009 at 2:56

• Changed title: error message does not match error condition for nSeats

[GoogleCodeExporter]

It's not that big a deal; I'm going to go ahead and mark this as fixed, but 
feel free
to reopen if you disagree.

I would throw the same exception in the setter, the same one as is being thrown 
in
checkMinRequirements.  It would just mean that the exception would be closer to 
the
problem. So, if at some later date, there was a bug that accidentally set the
numSeats to an incorrect value, the stacktrace wouldn't come sometime later.  

Not *so* important in this case, as most of the time, the numSeats is going to 
be set
from the ballots object, so it will already be removed from the exception.

Original comment by dan.keshet@gmail.com on 6 Dec 2009 at 6:15

• Changed state: Done