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

[Gordon McMillan]

Moshe Zadka wrote:

> On Tue, 28 Mar 2000, Gordon McMillan wrote:
> 
> > What would happen if he (and everyone else) installed 
> > themselves *into* my core packages, then I decided I didn't 
> > want his stuff? More than likely I'd have to scrub the damn 
> > installation and start all over again.
> 
> I think Greg Stein answered that objection, by reminding us that the
> filesystem isn't the only way to set up a package hierarchy.

You mean when Greg said:
>Assuming that you use an archive like those found in my "small" distro or
> Gordon's distro, then this is no problem. The archive simply recognizes
> and maps "text.encoding.macbinary" to its own module.

I don't know what this has to do with it. When we get around 
to the 'macbinary' part, we have already established that 
'text.encoding' is the parent which should supply 'macbinary'.

>  In
> particular, even with Python's current module system, there is no need to
> scrub installations: Python core modules go (under UNIX) in
> /usr/local/lib/python1.5, and 3rd party modules go in
> /usr/local/lib/python1.5/site-packages. 

And if there's a /usr/local/lib/python1.5/text/encoding, there's 
no way that /usr/local/lib/python1.5/site-
packages/text/encoding will get searched.

I believe you could hack up an importer that did allow this, and 
I think you'd be 100% certifiable if you did. Just look at the 
surprise factor.

Hacking stuff into another package is just as evil as math.pi = 
42.

> Anyway, I already expressed my preference of the Perl way, over the Java
> way. For one thing, I don't want to have to register a domain just so I
> could distribute Python code <wink>

I haven't the foggiest what the "Perl way" is; I wouldn't be 
surprised if it relied on un-Pythonic sociological factors. I 
already said the Java mechanics are silly; uniqueness is what 
matters. When Python packages start selling in the four and 
five figure range <snort>, then a registry mechanism will likely 
be necessary.

- Gordon