[python-committers] do we still believe explicit relative imports are bad as PEP 8 claims?

[Jim Fulton]

On Fri, Feb 18, 2011 at 3:36 PM, Brett Cannon <brett at python.org> wrote:
> It says they are "highly discouraged" because "absolute imports are
> more portable and usually more readable", but now that people have had
> a chance to use explicit relative imports, do people still believe
> this? I mean if we truly believed this then why did we add the syntax?
> I know I have used it and love it, let alone that I don't buy the
> portability argument.

I've been living so long with versions of Python that didn't have
explicit relative imports, I'd forgotten why I wanted them in
in the first place.

My initial reaction was that absolute imports are good enough, but that
there are special cases where relative imports are needed and
explicit relative imports address that need, so I'm sure we need the
feature.

Thinking about it more though, I *like* explicit relative imports
because I think they can reduce the burden of reading the code.

When you see:

  from . import foo

You know that foo is local to (part of) this project.  Of course, if you see:

  import thisproject.foo

You know that foo is part of ``thisproject``, but you also have to remember that
``thisproject`` is *this* project. :)  How useful this is can
certainly be debated.

I think I'd have to use the explicit relative import style in practice
for a while
before I was sure I liked it.  I think I'll make a point of trying it out.

Of course, the explicit relative import style makes moving packages around
*somewhat* easier.

I agree with Marc-Andre. We shouldn't worry too much about what PEP 8 says.

Jim

-- 
Jim Fulton
http://www.linkedin.com/in/jimfulton