[Python-Dev] Keeping __init__.py empty for Python packages used for module grouping.

[Fred Drake]

On Mon, Jan 24, 2011 at 4:59 PM, Tres Seaver <tseaver at palladion.com> wrote:
> It might matter if we want to enable third-party package installation
> into a namespace also used by the stdlib:  ISTR that the 'xml' package
> had such installs at one point.

Almost, but not quite.

The xml package at one point allowed itself to be overridden by
another package (_xmlplus specifically), however that was define.
Experience proved that this was a mistake.

"Namespace packages", as originally defined by setuptools and applied
for the hurry, zc, and zope packages (and many others), are a very
different thing than what was done for the xml/_xmlplus package, and
have proven significantly more useful and usable.

While I heartily approve of "namespace packages" of that sort, I see
no reason to support installing into the same package namespace as the
standard library.  The primary disadvantage I see is that it would be
too easy to foster confusion over what's in the standard library among
newcomers.


  -Fred

--
Fred L. Drake, Jr.    <fdrake at acm.org>
"A storm broke loose in my mind."  --Albert Einstein