[Python-Dev] Re: Change to sys.path[0] for Python 2.3

[Tommy 'Too Many Stances' Burnette]

James C. Ahlstrom writes:
| 
| The proposal is to put getcwd() into sys.path[0] for an interactive
| interpreter.  So after os.chdir(), imports would NOT be made from
| the new current directory, but rather from the original current
| directory.
| 
| If this is a problem (I'm guessing it is) then the new rule would be:
| 
|    sys.path[0] is the absolute path to the script if there is one; else
|    for an interactive interpreter or for the "-c" option, sys.path[0]
|    is the special entry "" (or perhaps ".") that means look in the
|    current directory (which is allowed to change).
| 
| In either case, sys.path[0] would be added before any imports.
| 
| I am not happy with changing current directories because I am trying
| to speed up imports, and it is harder to cache directory contents
| on multiple operating systems.  But I can do it if we need to.
| 
| A special case for "." is not too bad, but accommodating arbitrary
| relative paths is more of a problem.
| 
| What do others think?
| 


As little as I like it, we have lots and lots of code here that
depends on chdir to find modules for importing.  If you were to make
this change (and I suspect you won't because it might break lots of
code, but for argument's sake...) would having an explicit '.' 
somewhere in sys.path still work after a chdir?