PROPOSAL: Packages in Python lib

[Paul Prescod]

Hans Nowak wrote:
> 
> I think it will be very hard to make a package hierarchy that is logical to
> all users (or most of them). That does not mean your proposal isn't good...
> I'm just wondering how these problems will be solved.  It makes me wish that
> there was a different approach to grouping of modules... something non-
> hierarchical.

For human beings, hierarchy is the simplest organization after a flat
list. A hierarchy doesn't have to be perfect to be usable. Looking for
HTML? Check out the Internet package and then the formats package. I
already have to do that with the Python library anyhow -- sometimes I
don't know if a thing is in os or os.path, re or string, glob or fnmatch,
zlib or gzip, etc. You just have to look around.

Anyhow, the existence of hierarchy in the standard library does not
preclude a flat representation of it. The Python library documentation is
already hierarchical but you can find HTML in the table of contents, the
module list or the index.

Overall, I don't see it as a big problem. I mean if it became a problem we
could easily add a concept of symlinks to the package mechanism but I
don't think that we need that.

-- 
 Paul Prescod  - ISOGEN Consulting Engineer speaking for only himself
 http://itrc.uwaterloo.ca/~papresco

"Microsoft spokesman Ian Hatton admits that the Linux system would have
performed better had it been tuned."
"Future press releases on the issue will clearly state that the research
was sponsored by Microsoft."
  http://www.itweb.co.za/sections/enterprise/1999/9904221410.asp