[Python-Dev] Fix import errors to have data (original) (raw)

Tim Peters tim.peters at gmail.com
Tue Jul 27 18:59:35 CEST 2004

[Jim Fulton]

... No. I'm proposing a way for a Python developer to detect the presence or absence of a module.

Seems to me a module is present if and only if you try to import it, and the import succeeds, or the import fails and the module name is in sys.modules after.

import cupcake # no such thing Traceback (most recent call last): File "", line 1, in ? ImportError: No module named cupcake 'cupcake' in sys.modules False

import pty # exists, but is broken on Windows Traceback (most recent call last): File "", line 1, in ? File "C:\Program Files\Zope-2.7.2-0\bin\Lib\pty.py", line 19, in ? import termios ImportError: No module named termios 'pty' in sys.modules True

Not that I like this -- it turns broken modules into "a feature". A function that answered the question directly would be mounds better.

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