[Python-ideas] Allow multiple imports from a package while preserving its namespace

[Nick Coghlan]

On 27 April 2018 at 01:22, Serhiy Storchaka <storchaka at gmail.com> wrote:
> I think this special cases isn't special enough to introduce a special
> syntax.

While I'm mostly inclined to agree, I do think it would be nice to
have a clean spelling for "ensure this module is fully imported, but
don't bind it locally".

Right now, the most concise spelling I can think of for that would be
to bind all the imported modules to the same throwaway variable, then
delete that variable:

    import pkg
    from pkg import mod1 as __, mod2 as __, mod3 as __
    del __

Allowing "as None" to mean "Don't bind this name at all" would give:

    import pkg
    from pkg import mod1 as None, mod2 as None, mod3 as None

    from . import views
    from .views import base as None

It would be a bit odd though, since "None = anything" is normally a
syntax error.

Taking this idea in a completely different direction: what if we were
to take advantage of PEP 451 __spec__ attributes to enhance modules to
natively support implicit on-demand imports before they give up and
raise AttributeError? (Essentially making all submodule imports
implicitly lazy if you don't explicitly import them - you'd only be
*required* to explicitly import top level modules, with everything
under that being an implementation detail of that top level package)

Cheers,
Nick.

-- 
Nick Coghlan   |   ncoghlan at gmail.com   |   Brisbane, Australia