[Python-Dev] Adding PEP consistent aliases for names that don't currently conform

[Guido van Rossum]

On Tue, Mar 3, 2009 at 5:15 PM, Brett Cannon <brett at python.org> wrote:
>
>
> On Tue, Mar 3, 2009 at 05:13, <rdmurray at bitdance.com> wrote:
>>
>> On Tue, 3 Mar 2009 at 06:01, Ivan KrstiÄ~G wrote:
>>>
>>> On Mar 2, 2009, at 7:08 PM, Steve Holden wrote:
>>>>
>>>> > >  PS.: so is datetime.datetime a builtin then? :)
>>>> > >  Another historic accident. Like socket.socket. :-(
>>>> >
>>>>  A pity this stuff wasn't addressed for 3.0. Way too late now, though.

A pity indeed.

>>> It may be too late to rename the existing accidents, but why not add
>>> consistently-named aliases (socket.Socket, datetime.DateTime, etc) and
>>> strongly encourage their use in new code?
>
> Or make the old names aliases for the new names and start a
> PendingDeprecationWarning on the old names so they can be switched in the
> distant future?

+1, if it's not done in a rush and only for high-visibility modules --
let's start with socket and datetime.

We need a really long lead time before we can remove these. I
recommend starting with a *silent* deprecation in 3.1 combined with a
PR offensive for the new names.

>> As a user I'd be +1 on that.  In fact, I might even start using 'as'
>> in my own code for that purpose right now.  I've always felt vaguely
>> confused and disturbed whenever I imported 'datetime', but until this
>> discussion I didn't realize why :)  Thinking about it, I know I've
>> written 'from datetime import DateTime' a number of times and then had
>> to go back and fix my code when I tried to run it.  And I'm sure that
>> sometimes when that happens I've had to (re)read the docs (or do a 'dir')
>> to find out why my import wasn't working.
>>
>> Having said all that out loud, I think I might be stronger than a +1 on
>> this idea.  I'd be willing to help with doc and even code patches once
>> I finish learning how to contribute properly.
>
> +1 from me to fix these little mishaps in naming in both modules.

-- 
--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)