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

[Guido van Rossum]

> > Marc-Andre grabbed "mx". If (as I rather suspect <wink>) he
> > wants to remake the entire standard lib in his image, he's
> > welcome to - *under* mx.
> 
> Right, that's the way I see it too. BTW, where can I register
> the "mx" top-level package name ? Should these be registered
> in the NIST registry ? Will the names registered there be
> honored ?

I think the NIST registry is a failed experiment -- too cumbersome to
maintain or consult.  We can do this the same way as common law
handles trade marks: if you have used it as your brand name long
enough, even if you didn't register, someone else cannot grab it away
from you.

> > 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.
> 
> That's a no-no, IMHO. Unless explicitly allowed, packages
> should *not* install themselves as subpackages to other
> existing top-level packages. If they do, its their problem
> if the hierarchy changes...

Agreed.  Although some people seem to *want* this.  Probably because
it's okay to do that in Java and (apparently?) in Perl.  And C++,
probably.  It all probably stems back to Lisp.  I admit that I didn't
see this subtlety when I designed Python's package architecture.  It's
too late to change (e.g. because of __init__.py).  Is it a problem
though?  Let's be open-minded about this and think about whether we
want to allow this or not, and why...

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