[Tutor] library terminology and importing

[Ben Finney]

street.sweeper at mailworks.org writes:

> I get an error if I try
>
> from datetime.datetime import now, strftime

‘datetime.datetime’ is not a module, so you can not import objects from
it.

> But if I import all of os and datetime, I can use those functions by
> writing the full 'path' 3 levels deep:
>
> os.path.expanduser('~')
> datetime.datetime.now()

Yes. That's a good way to do it, because it makes your code explicit and
clear to read.

> Is there a way to import individual functions from datetime.datetime?

Don't try to do that. Namespaces are a honking good idea in Python, you
should not seek to avoid them.

-- 
 \         “I may disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the |
  `\        death your right to mis-attribute this quote to Voltaire.” |
_o__)                   —Avram Grumer, rec.arts.sf.written, 2000-05-30 |
Ben Finney