(Serious?) package namespace problem (and a proposal)

[Gordon McMillan]

Sean Blakey wrote: 

>On Wed, Jun 28, 2000 at 09:56:27PM +0000, Huaiyu Zhu wrote:

[snip]

>OK, I think I see what you mean.  You are objecting to the way that
>python searches first for modules in the local directory before
>searching the normal PYTHONPATH, correct?

>If you don't want python to search the current directory for imports,
>there is a very simple solution: put this snippet above all of your
>other imports: import sys
>sys.path.remove('.')

Not a real solution. If module x is part of a package, and does an "import 
y", then the package is searched first. This has nothing to do with  '.' 
being on sys.path. It's called a "relative import", and it means that if 
you have "package.os", then the real "os" is unavailable anywhere in 
"package". Period.

I think the "relative import" feature should be shot in the head (2 posts 
today), but unfortunately most packages rely heavily on it.

- Gordon