[Python-Dev] New and Improved Import Hooks

[Guido van Rossum]

> From: Guido van Rossum [mailto:guido@python.org]
> > I still think I'd like sys.path to be a real list of real strings
> > (not necessarily representing files or directories though), with
> > a configurable set of handlers that are given a chance to deal
> > with each string in turn.

[Paul Moore]
> That's exactly what I am arguing for.
> 
> Jim Ahlstrom's existing patch makes this happen, for the extremely
> specific case of zip files only.
> 
> Gordon McMillan's iu.py code offers this in a general way, but in
> Python - and hence with a (fairly small!) efficiency hit, and no
> obvious way of writing hooks in C.
> 
> I believe that taking Gordon's design and implementing it in C,
> along with a standardised zip import hook, satisfies both Just's
> requirements and the requirements of PEP 273. But if it's not
> possible to do this in the available timescale, we should just go
> with Jim's patch for now (and maybe add iu.py to the standard
> library, as an interim pure-python solution), and look at import
> hooks in the longer term. I see no obvious value in going through
> the design process again, from scratch.

OK, except for adding iu.py -- we already have ihooks.py and
imputils.py, we don't need another one until we know what we will do
long term.

--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)