why not fix it there?

yeah, I should, I included this as a sort of placeholder...

The problem is that, for example, the constant CUSTOM as it is used in framework/easyconfig/default.py corresponds to the string "CUSTOM".
However, the constant CUSTOM that is imported from framework.easyconfig, as is done in easyblocks when defining custom parameters via extra_options, corresponds to (1, 'easyblock-specific'), since it's obtained from ALL_CATEGORIES in framework/easyconfig/init.py`.

That causes problems when comparing categories, as is done here, since then all categories should be of the same kind, whether they are obtained for default or extra parameters.

I can probably fix it without breaking easyblocks, but I need to think about it. :-)

move to other module (and this is a funciton, not class method)

ok, will move to easybuild/tools/prettyprint.py

this is not really acceptable. why is this not

ALL_CATEGORIES = [HIDDEN, ...]

(that would also define the order) btw.

here's what's in easybuild/framework/easyconfig/__init__.py:

from easybuild.framework.easyconfig.default import ALL_CATEGORIES
globals().update(ALL_CATEGORIES)

ALL_CATEGORIES is only there such that the constants can be defined in the easybuild.framework.easyconfig namespace, it's not used anywhere else; the constants are directly accessible here...

but now you copy the names again, without any garantee that the keys are the as the constants.
and only because you need HIDDEN? which you could get from

from easybuild.framework.easyconfig import HIDDEN

no, I need all of them, both in default.py itself, and potentially in easyblocks too (which is what the 'trick' in init is for)

I know no other way to make sure that the names of the constants in default.py and the ones being defined in __init__.py are the same... I'm open to suggestions.

ok, i overlooked something 😄
i'm just afraid that this very error prone
maybe add a test with

names=['hidden', ...]
for ind,name in enumerate(names):
    constname=name.replace('-').upper()
    # this validates the import
    # i thinkl import returns too
    constvalue=import('easybuild.framework.easyconfig', constname)
    assert(constane, (ind-1, name))
    assert(constvalue, ALL_CATEGORIES[constname])    

(or however this works again in python 😄)