rebaseline_server: allow users to generate SKP diff patches on a shared instance

gm/rebaseline_server/results.py

Index: gm/rebaseline_server/results.py
diff --git a/gm/rebaseline_server/results.py b/gm/rebaseline_server/results.py
index 11a7d6ecfdd7e9aa35a3e4d35185e207f7abcda0..d1623b1665f2bdfd9217c55534e55b986a4e1692 100755
--- a/gm/rebaseline_server/results.py
+++ b/gm/rebaseline_server/results.py
@@ -213,7 +213,7 @@ class BaseComparisons(object):
     Raises:
       IOError if root does not refer to an existing directory
     """
-    # I considered making this call _read_dicts_from_root(), but I decided
+    # I considered making this call read_dicts_from_root(), but I decided
     # it was better to prune out the ignored builders within the os.walk().
     if not os.path.isdir(root):
       raise IOError('no directory found at path %s' % root)
@@ -227,7 +227,8 @@ class BaseComparisons(object):
         meta_dict[builder] = gm_json.LoadFromFile(full_path)
     return meta_dict
 
-  def _read_dicts_from_root(self, root, pattern='*.json'):
+  @staticmethod
+  def read_dicts_from_root(root, pattern='*.json'):

[stephana, 2014/08/20 14:27:28]

This is a nit, and not necessary to change, but IMHO this should be factored out
into a utility module and be a standalone function (outside of a class). 

So you would do something like:

import util
...
x = util.read_dicts_from_root(...)

[epoger, 2014/08/20 14:33:57]

Sounds like a good idea.  Added a TODO.

     """Read all JSON dictionaries within a directory tree.
 
     Args: