[Python-Dev] Re: Relative import

[Paul Moore]

Guido van Rossum <guido at python.org> writes:

>> I don't either, although my biggest problem with it is that it isn't
>> clear just by looking what the punctuation actually means.  I just
>> fear this will be a permanent head scratcher.
>
> This argument by itself has very little value.  The question isn't
> whether it's self-describing (very few features beyond decimal
> integers are); the question is whether it's easy to remember.  There
> are two subclasses of that: easy to remember what it means when you
> next see it, and easy to remember how to spell it when you next need
> it.  IMO the dot syntax does fine here.

The biggest "clarity" issue I have with the dot notation is that
there's no obvious keyword to look up when you want to find out what's
going on. The best you could do is look up the "import" section of the
manual. Heaven help you if you want to use Google. (Has anyone tried
to get any meaningful information from Google on Microsoft's two
technologies, COM and .NET? You'd almost think they'd done it
deliberately...

Seriously, the "what do I search for?" factor bugs me every time I hit
it.

Paul.
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