funcs vs vars in global namespace

[Alex Martelli]

David Rysdam <drysdam at ll.mit.edu> wrote:
   ...
> OK, dumb question #1:
> 
> Why do this:
> 
> sub_module = __import__(which_module_this_time)
> vars(sub_module).update(which_dict_this_time)
> 
> When I could just do this:
> 
> __import__(which_module_this_time, which_dict_this_time)
> 
> ?

You can do whatever you wish, but what makes you think these constructs
have similar effects?  Quoting from Python's online docs on __import__,

"""
 the standard implementation  does not use its locals argument at all,
and uses its  globals only to determine the package context of the
import statement
"""

In short, the standard implementation of __import__ does NOT alter in
any way the dict of the module it imports.


Alex