Porably importing modules

[Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams]

On Thu, 23 Aug 2001, Graham Ashton wrote:

> I'm sure there's a more idiomatic way to trap the failure to import a
> module than my attempt. Whilst making sure one of my apps runs on Windows
> as well as Unix I came up with the following code (re-typed and untested):
>
>   # catch failure to import and let it pass
>   try:
>       import syslog
>   except ImportError, e:
>       print "can't import syslog: %s" % e
>
>   # [ snip loads of stuff ]
>
>   # make sure syslog is imported before trying to use it
>   if "syslog" in dir():
>       syslog.openlog(...)
>   else:
>       print "sorry, no syslog support"
>
> Am I re-inventing a perfectly round wheel? Is there a cleaner way?
>
> Thanks.
>
> --
> Graham

Try this:

def dummyzero():
  pass

def dummyone(x):
  pass

log=None
closelog=None

 ...
try:
  import syslog
  log=syslog.syslog
  closelog=syslog.close
  syslog.open(...)
except ImportError, e:
  print "can't import syslog: %s" % e
  log=dummyone
  closelog=dummyzero
 ...
log("Whoops! THAT wasn't supposed to happen...")
 ...
closelog()


-- 
Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams  <ignacio at openservices.net>