[Python-Dev] __import__ problems

[Mart Somermaa]

Nick Coghlan wrote:

> As Hrvoje has pointed out, 'sys' is part of the internal interpreter
> machinery - it's there as soon as the interpreter starts. The import
> call for it just grabs it out of the module cache and creates a
> reference to it in the current namespace.
I understand that, but

Explicit is better than implicit.

 --> non-explicit import sys and __import__(modname) to access

     sys.modules[modname]

Simple is better than complex.

 --> three lines for a common use case instead of one

Readability counts.

 --> why is sys imported in this WSGI app (that shouldn't generally

     touch any of the common sys.argv, sys.stdout etc)?!

     (500 lines later) aha, to access sys.modules

There should be one-- and preferably only one --obvious way to do it.

--> should I use the 3-line idiom? should I use the getattr() idiom?

    Ideally, __import__() should support the only obvious way.

In short, the three-line version doesn't convey the intent in an obvious way and does more work than is necessary.