If you liked the nice simple assert, you can get an imitation in Python tests using py.test: http://pytest.org/latest/assert.html

Source code:

    def test_function():
         assert f() == 4

Output:

        def test_function():
    >       assert f() == 4
    E       assert 3 == 4
    E        +  where 3 = f()

Here's how it works: http://pytest.org/latest/assert.html#assert-details -- when importing the test module, all simple asserts are rewritten (which has some limitations if side effects are involved).

No more verbose self.assertTheItemIsInThisList(item, list) at least.