[Python-Dev] [Idle-dev] Removing IDLE from the standard library

[Fred Drake]

I wrote:
> Indeed!  And I'd be quite content with such a solution, since I
> consider scripts and modules to be distinct.

On Mon, Jul 12, 2010 at 5:59 PM, Antoine Pitrou <solipsis at pitrou.net> wrote:
> Except that modules can often be executed as scripts...

Rest assured, I'm well aware of the history, and don't seriously
expect the situation to change.  Not all of us consider modules and
scripts synonymous; I've considered them distinct for quite some time.

The problem with a script being importable as a module, masking the
intended module, is simply a symptom of this misfeature that has been
identified as commonly biting newcomers.

Glyph Lefkowitz wrote:
> but ... isn't the whole point of 'python -m' to make scripts and modules _not_ be distinct?

That was never how I understood the intention.  The point was to make
modules that could be used as scripts easier to use as scripts.  There
have been proposals for main-functions in modules that would be
invoked as a default entry point; those make -m more attractive.  I'd
be more likely to use -m if those were part of the package.


  -Fred

-- 
Fred L. Drake, Jr.    <fdrake at gmail.com>
"A storm broke loose in my mind."  --Albert Einstein