Stef Mientki wrote: > Steve Holden wrote: >> Stef Mientki wrote: >> >>> Gabriel Genellina wrote: >>> >> [...] >> >>> Sorry I don't understand all that pep-talk (I'm not a programmer ;-) >>> >> >> And I'm not a plumber. The difference between us is that I don't write >> blogs telling people how to lay out and connect their pipework. >> >> regards >> Steve >> >> PS: Q: What's the difference between God and a doctor? >> A: God doesn't think she's a doctor >> > Probably this a a local disease after all, > as only me and a couple of other non-programmers in my surrounding seems > to have the same view on imports as me. > > Let me try to explain my point of view. > Undoubtable the import statement gives enormous functionality and > flexibility to programmers. > But for non-programmers the import statement is of no value whatsoever, > and it's just a necessary evil. > Above that, the import statement is (for non programmers) one of the > most difficult to understand parts of Python. > On the other hand, why do need Lutz and Ascher (which might not be the > best book) over 50 pages to explain imports and packages ? > Delphi, known as an "old language", has already automated imports for > more than 15 years. > > I would love to see a cookbook recipe (of at most 2 pages) , written by > experts, > of how to use imports in the right way. Or even better an automated > import mechanism. > > But as it looks that only a few people have the same problem as me, > it has no value to pay any further attention to this issue.
I don't think the existing (2.6) documentation on packages is at all satisfactory, consisting as it does of a single paragraph: """ Hierarchical module names: when the module names contains one or more dots, the module search path is carried out differently. The sequence of identifiers up to the last dot is used to find a “package”; the final identifier is then searched inside the package. A package is generally a subdirectory of a directory on sys.path that has a file __init__.py. """ Brett Cannon, a fairly active core developer, gives interesting talks about the way the import mechanism is broken, and has plans to eventually include a replacement implemented entirely in Python. When that happens, we might expect the documentation to improve, but I am afraid that in open source it has to be an itch that someone needs to scratch, and it seems like so far nobody is itching badly enough. regards Steve -- Steve Holden +1 571 484 6266 +1 800 494 3119 Holden Web LLC http://www.holdenweb.com/ -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
