Marco:

> To have a wide view, usually it is a good idea to start from the beginning:
> 
> https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/comp.lang.python/DfzH5Nrt05E/Yyd3s7fPVxwJ

Thank you, that is a very interesting thread. Clearly the creator of doctests, Tim Peters, is a well-regarded person in the Python world. 

On the other hand, I was surprised to see some of the examples used in the present-day documentation in Tim's original 1999 message. I find it remarkable that in 18 years since then, no rewrite or editing has replaced those examples with better ones.