[Python-Dev] pkgutil, pkg_resource and Python 3.0 name space packages

[Phillip J. Eby]

At 04:23 PM 1/6/2008 -0800, Guido van Rossum wrote:
>Regarding using common words, either the stdlib grabs these, or
>*nobody* gets to use them (for fear of conflicting with some other 3rd
>party package grabbing the same).

This isn't quite true; a standalone Python application that isn't 
extensible doesn't need to worry about this.  And it's standalone 
apps that are most likely to claim these common words.  (For example, 
until recently, Chandler's database library packages were in 'repository.*'.)

But of course this is still a pretty minor point overall.  If the 
stdlib does go for deeper nestings, I have a slight preference for 
seeing them under std.* or some such rather than top level.  But I 
don't really see a whole lot of point to doing a major re-org of the 
stdlib space to begin with, for the simple reason that package names 
are not really categories -- they're *names*.  IMO 'from databases 
import sqlite' doesn't add any value over 'import pysqlite3' to begin with.

Worse, it will likely be an attractive nuisance for people saying 
"why don't we have databases.Oracle?" and suchlike.  And you still 
have to remember the names, only now they're longer.  And was it 
database or databases?  Greater uniqueness of names is just another 
reason flat is better than nested.  :)