modules

[distrex]

jimd at vega.starshine.org (Jim Dennis) wrote in message news:<a8q9bi$2vka$1 at news.idiom.com>...
> In article <d9ea2696.0204061049.551bd53b at posting.google.com>, distrex wrote:
> 
> >I understand most of python. But I still don't get modules. I know
> >they are just basicaly a function but i don't know how to use them
> >effectively and what each one does. Everything good in python you will
> >at some point need to use a module right. If anyone can help me with
> >this i'd be greatful. Info or websites would be nice.
> 
>  Modules are things that you import into your namespace.  The
>  process of import them (or import *from* them) executes any 
>  code in them.  Usually (almost always) a module will only contain
>  class and function definitions, perhaps some "members" (variables)
>  and an "if __name__ == '__main__':" suite.
> 
>  You can think of a module as a library of classes, functions and
>  variables.  As such, it would be inappropriate to create modules 
>  that executed "visible" statements (such as printing stuff) or made 
>  other modifications to the importer's state.  Basically modules 
>  should normally just execute whatever is necessary to define their
>  namespace --- which usually requires NO "execution" (in the traditional
>  sense) at all.  (The confusion is that python is a dynamic language,
>  so things like:
>  
>  	def foo(): pass
> 	# and
> 	class Bar: pass
> 
>  ... are actually executable statements in Python, where they are 
>  "definitions" or "declarations" in other languages.
> 
>  The most important thing to realize about Python modules is that they
>  are singletons.  They are only executed upon initial import for any given 
>  interpreter session.   Additional imports are not an error, and won't 
>  raise an exception, but they will not re-execute the module's code.
> 
>  That can be confusing because subsequent import statements can 
>  change change namespaces around.  I can do something like:
> 
>  	import bisect as bifoo
> 	from bisect import insort
> 	import bisect 
> 
>  ... and I've only execute the contents of bisect once, but I've
>  made subsequent changes to my namespace (making the bisect.insort()
>  available directly available without any qualifiers (in my globals()
>  dictionary). and making it accessible via the bifoo and bisect
>  namespaces (which is silly, and used just for an example).
> 
>  You might be aware that there are three sorts of modules in
>  Python.  There are binaries (compiled code, usually from C sources)
>  which appear as .so (shared object) files under Linux and UNIX, and
>  .DLL files under MS Windows (don't know for Macs).  There are Python
>  files (simple .py files in python) and there are packages which 
>  are directories that contain __init__.py files with assignments to
>  __all__ lists.  You don't have to know or care about these differences
>  among these when using the modules.  You just use import the same way 
>  regardless of the underlying implementation details.
> 
>  While *writing* your own modules you can start a module as a .py
>  and later refactor it into a package or rewrite it in C and compile
>  as your needs require.

Don't take this the wrong way but I am a newbie and didn't understand
86% of what you just said. All I got was modules are classes functions
and variables. and a few other things but that was to complicated for
me (the newbie)