[Python-Dev] On breaking modules into packages (original) (raw)

Ben Finney ben+python at benfinney.id.au
Wed Nov 3 05:29:18 CET 2010

Antoine Pitrou <solipsis at pitrou.net> writes:

On Wed, 03 Nov 2010 11:47:55 +1100 Ben Finney <ben+python at benfinney.id.au> wrote: > > > If someone wants to depend on some undocumented detail of the > > directory layout it's their problem (like people depending on > > bytecode and other stuff). > > I would say that names without a single leading underscore are part > of the public API, whether documented or not.

That's not what we are talking about; we are talking about their locations. If the official location is the unittest package, then I don't see why we should also support undocumented locations just because they happen to work.

So long as the names available for import are such that they indicate whether they're public or implementation-detail (i.e. without a leading single underscore or with one), I agree that this is distinct from the issue of locations on the filesystem.

Otherwise we should also support e.g. "unittest.unlink" if the unittest package happens to have "from os import unlink" at its top. I don't think it's reasonable.

Hmm. That example does give me pause. I'm trying to think of a simple way that such imports are excluded from being “public interface”, but can't immediately think of one.

The distinction is clear in my head, though, for what it's worth :-)

-- \ “I don't accept the currently fashionable assertion that any | `\ view is automatically as worthy of respect as any equal and | o_) opposite view.” —Douglas Adams | Ben Finney

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