[Python-Dev] Dropping init.py requirement for subpackages (original) (raw)

Joe Smith unknown_kev_cat at hotmail.com
Wed Apr 26 22:33:06 CEST 2006

"Guido van Rossum" <guido at python.org> wrote in message news:ca471dc20604261016g14854274i970d6f4fc72561c7 at mail.gmail.com...

(Context: There's a large crowd with pitchforks and other sharp pointy farm implements just outside the door of my office at Google. They are making an unbelievable racket. It appears they are Google engineers who have been bitten by a misfeature of Python, and they won't let me go home before I have posted this message.)

One particular egregious problem is that subpackage are subject to the same rule. It so happens that there is essentially only one top-level package in the Google code base, and it already has an init.py file. But developers create new subpackages at a frightening rate, and forgetting to do "touch init.py" has caused many hours of lost work, not to mention injuries due to heads banging against walls.

It seems to me that the right way to fix this is to simply make a small change to the error message. On a failed import, have the code check if there is a directory that would have been the requested package if it had contained an init module. If there is then append a message like "You might be missing an init.py file".

It might also be good to check that the directory actually contained python modules.

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