[Python-Dev] The more I think about __all__ ...

[Guido van Rossum]

> It seems to be to be a compatibility issue.  If a module has an
> __all__, then from module import * may behave differently in Python
> 2.1 than it did in Python 2.0.  The only problem of this sort I have
> encountered is with pickle, but I seldom use import *.  

This suggests a compatibility test that Skip can easily write.

For each module that has an __all__ in 2.1, invoke python 2.0 to see
what names are imported by import * for that module in 2.0, and see if
there are differences.  Then look carefully at the differences and see
if they are acceptable.

--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)