[Python-ideas] Disallow importing the same module under multiple names

[Steven D'Aprano]

On Wed, Mar 14, 2018 at 04:20:20PM +1100, Chris Billington wrote:

> Instead, maybe a user should just get a big fat error if they try to import
> the same file twice under different names.

Absolutely not.

Suppose I import a library, Spam, which does "import numpy".

Now I try to "import numpy as np", and I get an error.

Besides, there is no reason why I shouldn't be able to 

import Spam
import Spam as spam
import Spam as Ham

*even in the same script* if I so choose. It's not an error or a mistake 
to have multiple names for a single object.


> I wonder if there's any reason something like this shouldn't be built into
> Python's default import system.

Wrong question. The question should not be "Why shouldn't we do this?" 
but "why should we do this?".


-- 
Steve