[Python-Dev] Python 1.6 status

[James C. Ahlstrom]

Gordon McMillan wrote:
> 
> Marc-Andre wrote:
> 
> > Fredrik Lundh wrote:
> > >
> > > Guido van Rossum <guido@CNRI.Reston.VA.US> wrote:
> > > > - suggestions for new issues that maybe ought to be settled in 1.6
> > >
> > > three things: imputil, imputil, imputil
> >
> > But please don't add the current version as default importer...
> > its strategy is way too slow for real life apps (yes, I've tested
> > this: imports typically take twice as long as with the builtin
> > importer).
> 
> I think imputil's emulation of the builtin importer is more of a
> demonstration than a serious implementation. As for speed, it
> depends on the test.

IMHO the current import mechanism is good for developers who must
work on the library code in the directory tree, but a disaster
for sysadmins who must distribute Python applications either
internally to a number of machines or commercially.  What we
need is a standard Python library file like a Java "Jar" file.
Imputil can support this as 130 lines of Python.  I have also
written one in C.  I like the imputil approach, but if we want
to add a library importer to import.c, I volunteer to write it.

I don't want to just add more complicated and unmanageable hooks
which people will all use different ways and just add to the
confusion.

It is easy to install packages by just making them into a library
file and throwing it into a directory.  So why aren't we doing it?

Jim Ahlstrom