I was reading over PEP 382 and am not sure I really understand how it is a worthwhile step forward. Namespace packages are currently a mess and personally if anyone asks me I recommend not using the currently-available approach at all. Would it be possible to allow a more simple definition, for example putting the dot itself in the filename? Where these would be similar? site-packages/ foo/ __init__.py foo.bar.py foo.baz/ __init__.py qux.py foo.spam.eggs.py and site-packages/ foo/ __init__.py bar.py baz/ __init__.py qux.py spam/ __init__.py #empty eggs.py Obviously this is not fully-defined, but would this kind of approach fill the same need and be nicer to use, create, find, and understand then what is proposed in PEP 382?