[Python-Dev] PEP 382 specification and implementation complete (original) (raw)

"Martin v. Löwis" martin at v.loewis.de
Sun Nov 6 21:51:49 CET 2011

I think this was based on the assumption that existing namespace package approaches would break under the new scheme. Since that is not the case, I suspect those previous objections were overstated (and all packaging related code manages to cope well enough with modules where the file name doesn't match the package name)

I just drafted a message rebutting Phillip's objection, when I then found that you disagree as well :-)

One elaboration:

The downsides, however, are also plentiful. If a package starts its life as a normal package, it must be renamed when it becomes a namespace, with the implied consequences for revision control tools.

If a package starts out as a regular (P/init.py) package (possibly with init.py being empty), then making it a namespace package actually requires no change at all - that single init.py could continue to exist.

Developers may decide to still delete init.py and rename the package to .pyp (with VCS consequences), but that would be their choice deciding whether purity beats practicality in their case (where I think most developers actually would rename the directory once they can drop support for pre-3.3 releases).

Regards, Martin

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