Need clue with import hackery

[Richard Jones]

On Saturday 04 August 2001 00:27, Gordon McMillan wrote:
> [snip: roundup makes use of python's import mechanisms in its instances]
>
> Which means that roundup will not work with freeze, mac's
> BuildApplication, Installer or py2exe.
>
> If these roundup extensions (is that a fair characterization?)
> were installed as subpackages of roundup, then they might be
> workable.

They're not extensions, they're working instances of roundup.

There's two separate components of a roundup installation: the software and 
one or more instances. The software is installed in site-packages, and is a 
standard python package. It contains all the core functionality, and the 
"templates" for making instances. Instances contain the actual data that is 
created when you use roundup. Further, it contains the schema for that data 
and view information. This is done using python modules that extend the basic 
software, allowing high levels of site customisation. The instances would 
never be packaged up for transport like the software would, so I don't 
believe that there's an issue with freeze etc.

The instance-as-package idea has worked well so far, with some glitches to do 
with working with python's import mechanisms. I'm not sure how we could have 
achieved the same level of flexibility using any other scheme. I'm completely 
open to suggestions though.


    Richard

ps. does the above make sense? If it does, I'll insert it, or something like 
it, into the README.