[Python-Dev] datetime.date.today() raises "AttributeError: time"

[Steve Holden]

Tal Einat wrote:
> For an unknown reason, datetime.date.today() began throwing a cryptic
> "AttributeError: time" exception. It took me a while to figure out
> that this was caused by an accidental overriding of the built-in
> 'time' module.
> 
> Here's an example interactive session which shows the problem:
> 
> [tal ~]$ touch time.py
> [tal ~]$ python
> Python 2.5.2 (r252:60911, Jul 17 2008, 10:47:50)
> [GCC 4.0.1 (Apple Inc. build 5484)] on darwin
> Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>>> import time
>>>> time.__file__
> 'time.py'
>>>> import datetime
>>>> datetime.date.today()
> Traceback (most recent call last):
>   File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
> AttributeError: time
> 
> Here I used version 2.5.2, but I checked and this also happens on 2.6.
> 
> 
> It this desired behavior?
> 
> At the very least the exception should be more detailed, perhaps to
> the point of suggesting the probable cause of the error (i.e.
> overriding the time module).
> 
How is this different from any other case where you import a module with
a standard library name conflict, thereby confusing modules loaded later
standard library. Should we do the same for any error induced in such a way?

regards
 Steve
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