Some clean-ups to the context module (docstring changes, added TODO's, etc).

pystache/context.py

 # coding: utf-8
 
 """
-Exposes a ContextStack class and functions to retrieve names from context.
+Exposes a ContextStack class.
 
 """
 
@@ -27,6 +27,8 @@ def _is_callable(obj):
     return hasattr(obj, '__call__')
 
 
+# TODO: rename item to context (now that we have a separate notion of context stack).
+# TODO: document what a "context" is as opposed to a context stack.
 def _get_value(item, key):
     """
     Retrieve a key's value from an item.
@@ -168,54 +170,62 @@ class ContextStack(object):
         return context
 
     # TODO: add some unit tests for this.
-    def resolve(self, name):
+    def get(self, name, default=u''):
         """
-        Resolve a name against a context stack.
+        Resolve a dotted name against the current context stack.
 
         This function follows the rules outlined in the section of the spec
         regarding tag interpolation.
 
         Arguments:
 
-          context_stack: a ContextStack instance.
+          name: a dotted or non-dotted name.
+
+          default: the value to return if name resolution fails at any point.
+            Defaults to the empty string since the Mustache spec says that if
+            name resolution fails at any point, the result should be considered
+            falsey, and should interpolate as the empty string.
 
         This function does not coerce the return value to a string.
 
         """
         if name == '.':
+            # TODO: should we add a test case for an empty context stack?
             return self.top()
 
         parts = name.split('.')
 
-        value = self.get(parts[0], _NOT_FOUND)
+        value = self._get_simple(parts[0])
 
-        # TODO: make sure we have a test case for the following point.
-        #
-        # The full context stack is not used to resolve the remaining parts.
-        # From the spec--
-        #
-        #   If any name parts were retained in step 1, each should be resolved
-        #   against a context stack containing only the result from the former
-        #   resolution.
-        #
         for part in parts[1:]:
             # TODO: consider using EAFP here instead.
             #   http://docs.python.org/glossary.html#term-eafp
             if value is _NOT_FOUND:
                 break
+            # The full context stack is not used to resolve the remaining parts.
+            # From the spec--
+            #
+            #   If any name parts were retained in step 1, each should be resolved
+            #   against a context stack containing only the result from the former
+            #   resolution.
+            #
+            # TODO: make sure we have a test case for the above point.
             value = _get_value(value, part)
 
-        # The spec says that if name resolution fails at any point, the result
-        # should be considered falsey, and should interpolate as the empty string.
         if value is _NOT_FOUND:
-            return ''
+            return default
 
         return value
 
-    # TODO: rename this method _get_part().
-    def get(self, key, default=None):
+    # TODO: combine the docstring for this method with the docstring for
+    #   the get() method.
+    def _get_simple(self, key):
         """
-        Query the stack for the given key, and return the resulting value.
+        Query the stack for a non-dotted key, and return the resulting value.
+
+        Arguments:
+
+          key: a non-dotted name.
 
         This method queries items in the stack in order from last-added
         objects to first (last in, first out).  The value returned is
@@ -280,15 +290,16 @@ class ContextStack(object):
           TODO: explain the rationale for this difference in treatment.
 
         """
-        for obj in reversed(self._stack):
-            val = _get_value(obj, key)
+        val = _NOT_FOUND
+
+        for item in reversed(self._stack):
+            val = _get_value(item, key)
             if val is _NOT_FOUND:
                 continue
             # Otherwise, the key was found.
-            return val
-        # Otherwise, no item in the stack contained the key.
+            break
 
-        return default
+        return val
 
     def push(self, item):
         """

pystache/renderengine.py

@@ -68,7 +68,7 @@ class RenderEngine(object):
         Get a value from the given context as a basestring instance.
 
         """
-        val = context.resolve(tag_name)
+        val = context.get(tag_name)
 
         if callable(val):
             # According to the spec:
@@ -135,7 +135,7 @@ class RenderEngine(object):
             """
             # TODO: is there a bug because we are not using the same
             #   logic as in _get_string_value()?
-            data = context.resolve(name)
+            data = context.get(name)
             # Per the spec, lambdas in inverted sections are considered truthy.
             if data:
                 return u''
@@ -154,7 +154,7 @@ class RenderEngine(object):
             """
             template = template_
             parsed_template = parsed_template_
-            data = context.resolve(name)
+            data = context.get(name)
 
             # From the spec:
             #

pystache/tests/test_context.py

@@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ import unittest
 from pystache.context import _NOT_FOUND
 from pystache.context import _get_value
 from pystache.context import ContextStack
-from pystache.tests.common import AssertIsMixin
+from pystache.tests.common import AssertIsMixin, AssertStringMixin
 
 class SimpleObject(object):
 
@@ -204,7 +204,7 @@ class GetValueTests(unittest.TestCase, AssertIsMixin):
         self.assertNotFound(item2, 'pop')
 
 
-class ContextStackTests(unittest.TestCase, AssertIsMixin):
+class ContextStackTests(unittest.TestCase, AssertIsMixin, AssertStringMixin):
 
     """
     Test the ContextStack class.
@@ -320,7 +320,7 @@ class ContextStackTests(unittest.TestCase, AssertIsMixin):
 
         """
         context = ContextStack()
-        self.assertTrue(context.get("foo") is None)
+        self.assertString(context.get("foo"), u'')
 
     def test_get__default(self):
         """