[Python-Dev] Broken import?

[Greg Ewing]

Nick Coghlan wrote:

> 'import a.b.c' will look in sys.modules for "a.b.c", succeed and work,
> even if "a.b.c" is in the process of being imported.
> 
> 'from a.b import c' (or 'from . import c' in a subpackage of "a.b") will
> only look in sys.modules for "a.b", and then look on that object for a
> "c" attribute. The cached "a.b.c' module in sys.modules is ignored.

Hasn't 'from a.b import c' always been that way, though?
Is the problem just that relative imports make it easier
to run into this behaviour, or has something about the
way imports work changed?

-- 
Greg