[PYTHON MATRIX-SIG] Re: More Package concerns

[Guido van Rossum]

> I'm having some serious last minute thoughts about using packages in NumPy.
>  They basically come down to the mysterious "import ni" that must come at
> the top of every file that uses them.  This seems like a great hack to play
> around with the idea of packages, but it's an awfully confusing convention
> to have to explain to all of the potentially naive users I expect for this
> system.
> 
> How do people feel about having all of their files begin with:
> 
> import ni
> import Numeric
> ...

I don't mind, but I can see why this is ugly.  Given that one usually
will have to write import sys, os, string etc. as well, does it really
matter?

Perhaps you can suggest

	import ni, Numeric

There may also be a way to have a file Numeric.py that bootstraps the
whole thing into existence, which reduces the hack to one file that
you provide.

> Also, specifically to Guido, is the package feature something that you
> expect to have built in to python in the future?  Can I expect the import
> ni to go away any time soon?

Not anytime soon -- it will stay imlemented in Python for a long time.

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

=================
MATRIX-SIG  - SIG on Matrix Math for Python

send messages to: matrix-sig@python.org
administrivia to: matrix-sig-request@python.org
=================