module name versus function name resolution conflict.

[rocky]

Someone recently reported a problem in pydb where a function defined
in his program was conflicting with a module name that pydb uses. I
think I understand what's wrong, but I don't have any elegant
solutions to the problem. Suggestions would be appreciated.

In a nutshell, here's the problem:

In file fns:

  def foo(): print "foo"

In file pdebug.py:

  import fns, sys

  def trace_dispatch(frame, event, arg):
      fns.foo()
      print frame, event, arg
      return trace_dispatch

  sys.settrace(trace_dispatch)
  execfile('myprogram.py')

Finally file myprogram.py:

  def fns(): print "This is the *other* fns"

When you run pdebug.py you get:

$ python pdebug.py
foo
<frame object at 0xdd9030> call None
foo
<frame object at 0xdd9030> line None
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "pdebug.py", line 7, in <module>
    execfile('myprogram.py')
  File "myprogram.py", line 1, in <module>
    def fns(): print "This is the *other* fns"
  File "pdebug.py", line 3, in trace_dispatch
    fns.foo()
AttributeError: 'function' object has no attribute 'foo'


Basically inside the trace hook, local functions are visible and take
precedence over (global) module names. I could move "import fns"
inside trace_dispatch(), but I'd have to do that in all of the methods
that module "fns" is used.  Also note that using the form:
  from fns import foo

would eliminate the conflict on "fns", but I'd still have potential
conflicts on "foo". Using more obscure names (e.g. pydb_fns) would
reduce the chance of a conflict but not eliminate it.

Suggestions?