[Python-Dev] Great Renaming? What is the goal?

[Peter Funk]

Hi!

> Peter Funk wrote:
> > Why should modules be moved into packages?  I don't get it.
> 
Fredrik Lundh:
> fwiw, neither do I...

Pheeewww... And I thought I'am the only one! ;-)

> I'm not so sure that Python really needs a simple reorganization
> of the existing set of standard library modules.  just moving the
> modules around won't solve the real problems with the 1.5.2 std
> library...

Right.  I propose to leave the namespace flat.

I like to argue with Brad J. Cox ---the author of the book "Object
Oriented Programming - An Evolutionary Approach" Addison Wesley,
1987--- who proposes the idea of what he calls a "Software-IC":
He looks closely to design process of electronic engineers which 
ussually deal with large data books with prefabricated components.  
There are often hundreds of them in such a databook and most of
them have terse and not very mnemonic names.
But the engineers using them all day *know* after a short while that a 
7400 chip is a TTL-chip containing 4 NAND gates.  

Nearly the same holds true for software engineers using Software-IC
like 're' or 'struct' as their daily building blocks.

A software engineer who is already familar with his/her building
blocks has absolutely no advantage from a deeply nested namespace.

Now for something completely different:  
Fredrik Lundh about the library documentation:
> here's one proposal:
> http://www.pythonware.com/people/fredrik/librarybook-contents.htm

Whether 'md5', 'getpass' and 'traceback' fit into a category 
'Commonly Used Modules' is ....ummmm.... at least a bit questionable.

But we should really focus the discussion on the structure of the 
documentation.  Since many standard library modules belong into
several logical catagories at once, a true tree structured organization
is simply not sufficient to describe everything.  So it is important
to set up pointers between related functionality.  For example 
'string.replace' is somewhat related to 're.sub' or 'getpass' is
related to 'crypt', however 'crypt' is related to 'md5' and so on.

Regards, Peter
-- 
Peter Funk, Oldenburger Str.86, D-27777 Ganderkesee, Germany, Fax:+49 4222950260
office: +49 421 20419-0 (ArtCom GmbH, Grazer Str.8, D-28359 Bremen)