[Python-Dev] Re: .DLL vs .PYD search order

[Fredrik Lundh]

M.-A. Lemburg <mal@lemburg.com> wrote:
> >     given a name, check if you have a
> >     module with that name, and install
> >     it.  if you cannot, fail (in which case
> >     python asks the next importer along
> >     the path).
> > 
> > why do you have to complicate things beyond that?
> > why not just let Python provide a few base classes
> > and mixins for people who want to create custom
> > importers, and be done with it?
> 
> Because importing in Python has become *much* more
> complicated over time. There are requests for new
> features which touch subjects such as storage mechanisms,
> lookups, signatures (for trusted code), lazy imports, etc.

sorry, I still don't understand it.  our applications already
use different storage mechanisms, databases, signatures,
lazy importing, version handling, etc, etc.  now, if *we*
have managed to build all that on top of an old version
of imputil.py, how come it's not sufficient for the rest
of you?

> A chain of simple minded importers won't work together
> too well

why?  it sure works for us...

> duplicate work

avoiding duplicate work is what object oriented design
is all about.  and last time I checked, Python had excellent
support for that.

> and downgrade performance considerably due to the
> many recursive function calls

now that's what I call premature optimization.  and this
scares the hell out of me: if the rest of the python-dev
crowd don't seriously believe that Python is (or can be
made) fast enough to implement things like this, why
the heck are you using Python at all?  am I the only
one here who doesn't believe in osterhout's talk about
"the great system vs. scripting language divide"?

</F>