finding origin of names

[Robin Becker]

In article <mailman.1055004899.24832.python-list at python.org>, Steven
Taschuk <staschuk at telusplanet.net> writes
......
>> do I have to inspect the code to determine that module a defines v? 
>
>It's not clear to me what this question means.
>
>First, a.v and b.v are distinct names, that is, they can be
>rebound independently; so surely you have to ask separately
>whether a given module defines a.v and whether it defines b.v.
>
>Second, I'm not sure what "defines" means here.  Do you just want
>the location of the last assignment statement (or def statement,
>etc.) which bound that name?  (I don't think that information is
>easily available.)  And if so, why do you care?  It's all the same
>object regardless of which code bound it to the name you're using
>to refer to it.
>
OK I'm being stupid we're importing these things for their value. So I
really mean to find the original use of the value.

For the value 1 it's not that obvious, but suppose I create

#a.py
red = Color(1,0,0)


#b.py
from a import red


then in derived modules I have a choice to import red from either a or
b. Since the b name is imported from a, we can regard the b name as
derivative for these kinds of constant and therefore prefer to import
from a (the source of the definition).
-- 
Robin Becker