Standard module for import hacks?

[James Rauser]

Hi,

is imputil.py in the 2.2.1 distribution *really* a part of the
standard library?  I would like to do some import hacks (see below),
but the information I can find about the "right" way to do it is
contradictory.  I've found references to __import__ (low-level),
"ihooks" (no code) and imputil.py (in the library, but not documented).
The Import-SIG seems to be inactive, but I found an old mail in which
Guido says that imputil.py is still experimental, and other references
which say that its performance is bad.

Here's the task: we want to use Python as the scripting language for
our bioinformatics software, which is organized as an (open-ended)
collection of C++ shared libraries.  These libraries are *not* written
as python extensions, but they contain meta-information on their
exported names which I can use to automagically map the exported
functions into python callable objects.  With this I can create and
initialize a python module object.  The code to do this is in an
extension module 'pysf', in a function "sfimport". So, now I can write:

  import pysf              # get the root module for our python interface
  pysf.sfimport("FOO")     # map libFOO.so into a python module "pysf.FOO"
  from pysf import FOO     # I get tired of typing pysf.FOO all the time
  FOO.bar("zot")

What I'd like to do is eliminate the strange call to pysf.sfimport()
and the nested module names and just be able to write

  import pysf              # get root module, set up import hook
  import FOO               # map libFOO.so onto python module FOO
  FOO.bar("zot")

I'd like to do it in a way that will coexist with any other packages
that also hack the import mechanism.   What's the right mechanism?

TIA, Jim

-- 
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Jim Rauser                                          Science Factory GmbH
mailto:j.rauser at science-factory.com                       Unter Käster 1
Tel: +49 221 277 399 204                          50667 Cologne, Germany