[Python-ideas] "maybe import"?

[David Mertz]

It's a fairly standard pattern to see things like this:

    try:
        import foo
    except ImportError:
        foo = None

(and of course, variants with from...import et cetera). These can
potentially add a lot of clutter to the imports section of a file, given
that it requires 4 lines to do a conditional import.

It seems like it'd be useful and clean to have a syntax that looked like
this:

    maybe import foo
    from bar maybe import baz
    from qux maybe import quy as quz

Where the behavior would essentially be as above - attempt to run the
import normally, and in cases where the import fails, map the name to a
value of None instead. Users who want a different behavior are still free
to use the long-form syntax. A possibly variant might be to also only run
the import if the name isn't already bound, so that you could do something
like...

    from frobber_a maybe import frob as frobber
    from frobbler_b maybe import frobble as frobber
    from frobber_c maybe import frobit as frobber

...to potentially try different fallback options if the first choice for an
interface provider isn't available.

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