[Python-Dev] Great Renaming? What is the goal? (original) (raw)

Jeremy Hylton jeremy@cnri.reston.va.us
Tue, 28 Mar 2000 12:31:48 -0500 (EST)

"KLM" == Ken Manheimer <klm@digicool.com> writes:

The only problematic use of from ... import ... is from text.re import * which adds an unspecified set of names to the current namespace.

KLM> The other gotcha i mean applies when the thing you're importing KLM> is a terminal, ie a non-module. Then, changes to the KLM> assignments of the names in the original module aren't KLM> reflected in the names you've imported - they're decoupled from KLM> the namespace of the original module.

This isn't an import issue. Some people simply don't understand that assignment (and import as form of assignment) is name binding. Import binds an imported object to a name in the current namespace. It does not affect bindings in other namespaces, nor should it.

KLM> I thought the other problem peter was objecting to, having to KLM> change the import sections in the first place, was going to be KLM> avoided in the 1.x series (if we do this kind of thing) by KLM> inherently extending the import path to include all the KLM> packages, so people need not change their code? Seems like KLM> most of this would be fairly transparent w.r.t. the operation KLM> of existing applications.

I'm not sure if there is consensus on backwards compatibility. I'm not in favor of creating a huge sys.path that includes every package's contents. It would be a big performance hit.

Jeremy