Module names beginning w/ a digit

[Erik Max Francis]

"John E. Barham" wrote:

> Why can't Python module names start a digit?

Because names that start with digits aren't valid identifiers.  Module
names can't be Python keywords, either:

max at oxygen:~/tmp% touch is.py
max at oxygen:~/tmp% python
Python 2.2.2 (#2, Oct 14 2002, 17:32:20) 
[GCC egcs-2.91.66 19990314/Linux (egcs-1.1.2 release)] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import is
  File "<stdin>", line 1
    import is
            ^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax

As someone else pointed out, you can use the __import__ function which
takes a string, rather than an identifier.  If it's something you plan
on using a lot, though, you're probably off giving it the name of a
legal Python identifier.

-- 
 Erik Max Francis / max at alcyone.com / http://www.alcyone.com/max/
 __ San Jose, CA, USA / 37 20 N 121 53 W / &tSftDotIotE
/  \ The conviction of wisdom is the plague of man.
\__/ Montaigne
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 A lambda calculus explorer in Python.