[Python-Dev] zipimport & import hooks

[Guido van Rossum]

> Having listened to the arguments, and tried a few things out
> myself with iu.py, I now agree with this. Importer objects on
> sys.path are *very* easy to use, and nice and clean. I have no
> real code myself which will break - and I concede that if others
> do, they can speak for themselves.
> 
> In fact, I've gone to the other extreme. I think I'd rather see
> general objects on sys.path than string subclasses. Basically,
> the breakage happens sooner if someone *does* assume that sys.path
> items are strings.

This is a convincing argument.  Maybe we should just start warning
that sys.path may contain objects in the future.

The str subclass hack still smells ugly to me.

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