[Python-Dev] New relative import issue

[Steve Holden]

Guido van Rossum wrote:
> On 9/19/06, Greg Ewing <greg.ewing at canterbury.ac.nz> wrote:
> 
>>I haven't really thought it through in detail. It
>>just seems as though it would be a lot less confusing
>>if you could figure out from static information which
>>module will get imported by a given import statement,
>>instead of having it depend on the history of run-time
>>modifications to sys.path. One such kind of static
>>information is the layout of the filesystem.
> 
> 
> Eek? If there are two third-party top-level packages A and B, by
> different third parties, and A depends on B, how should A find B if
> not via sys.path or something that is sufficiently equivalent as to
> have the same problems? Surely every site shouldn't be required to
> install A and B in the same location (or in the same location relative
> to each other).
> 
> I sympathize with the problems that exist with the current import
> mechanism, really, I do. Google feels the pain every day (alas,
> Google's requirements are a bit unusual, so they alone can't provide
> much guidance for a solution). But if you combine the various
> requirements: zip imports, import hooks of various sorts, different
> permissions for the owners of different packages that must cooperate,
> versioning issues (Python versions as well as package versions),
> forwards compatibility, backwards compatibility, ease of development,
> ease of packaging, ease of installation, supporting the conventions of
> vastly different platforms, data files mixed in with the source code
> (sometimes with their own search path), and probably several other
> requirements that I'm forgetting right now, it's just not an easy
> problem.
> 
But you're the BDFL! You mean to tell me there are some problems you 
can't solve?!?!?!?!?

shocked-and-amazed-ly y'rs  - steve
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