[Python-Dev] Relative import

[Barry Warsaw]

On Wed, 2003-12-17 at 23:55, Guido van Rossum wrote:

> This can be interpreted in two ways though.  You could be unfortunate
> enough to create a module in your package that has the same name as a
> standard module you also need to import from inside the same package
> -- that's currently impossible.  

Right, and I'd like to make that possible.  The least disruptive way I
see of doing that is to introduce a magic root package from which things
can be imported from.  E.g. import __root__.re

> But the most common variant I've seen
> is what Tim Peters describes: having a module in the current directory
> that accidentally hides a standard module.

Yep, I've been bit by that too.

> The latter case does not involve packages and will not be fixed by any
> import syntax -- it can only be fixed by changing the default sys.path
> *not* to include the current directory, just like over the last decade
> or so Unix shells have stopped putting '.' in $PATH.

Yep.  I haven't had '.' in my $PATH for a bazillion years. :)

> But that has other downsides: it would be a lot harder to begin
> writing a program broken up into modules.  Hmm, maybe the current
> directory should be last?  That way you can import your own modules
> except if they clash with the standard library.  Hm, but there are so
> many standard library modules that it might still cause frequent
> complaints from mystified beginners.
> 
> I'm beginning to agree (uselessly) with Tim: import itself is a
> problem. :-)

There ya go!  That's thinking outside the box: let's deprecate import
altogether :)

-Barry