[Jeremy Hylton, on JimF's association objects wrt "from M import x" semantics]
This seems to contradict the 2nd Pythonic principle: Explicit is better than implicit.
I don't literally mean to argue that "The Python Way" should be used to make design decisions, but it captures exactly what makes me uncomfortable with the proposed change.
Go ahead & argue it: they were *intended* to be used to guide design decisions! They were my best shot at summarizing what I've learned in a decade of (mostly successful) Guido-channeling. But note that I only listed 19 of the 20 Pythonic Theses: the 20th was left blank, for Guido to fill in however he likes whenever the other 19 suggest a direction he dislikes <wink>. Other relevant theses here include the ones about whether the implementation is, or isn't, easy to explain. I'm suffering an email backlog and haven't yet studied the latest batch on this topic, but a quick skim sure suggests that a concrete implementation isn't self-evident, and its implications perhaps downright subtle regardless. not-a-conclusion-just-a-concern-ly y'rs - tim