[Python-Dev] A question for the Python Secret Police (original) (raw)

Guido van Rossum guido@beopen.com
Wed, 09 Aug 2000 07:42:49 -0500

A question for the Python Secret Police (or P. Inquisition, or whoever else:-).

That would be the Namespace Police in this case.

Is the following morally allowed:

package1/mod.py: class Foo: def method1(self): ... package2/mod.py: from package1.mod import * class Foo(Foo): def method2(self): ...

I see no problem with this. It's totally well-defined and I don't expect I'll ever have a reason to disallow it. Future picky compilers or IDEs might warn about a redefined name, but I suppose you can live with that given that it's machine-generated.

(The background is that the modules are machine-generated and contain AppleEvent classes. There's a large set of standard classes, such as StandardSuite, and applications can signal that they implement StandardSuite with a couple of extensions to it. So, in the Application-X StandardSuite I'd like to import everything from the standard StandardSuite and override/add those methods that are specific to Application X)

That actually looks like a good reason to do exactly what you propose.

--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.pythonlabs.com/~guido/)