How should multiple (related) projects be arranged (structured) and configured so that they can share code, have a related package structure and enable proper unittesting, and ensuring no namespace collisions

[ToddLMorgan at gmail.com]

Thanks for all the prompt helpful responses :- )

I have read and reread section 6.4 -> of the python docs and it doesn't
really help me.

Just a couple of clarifications.

I am already using a VCS (Version Control System) - subversion
actually.

When I mentioned a clear separation of production and test code I was
more referring to this sort of arrangement:
src
     a.b.c.common
     a.b.c.common.test
which I believe is bad

versus the clearer physical separation
test
    a.b.c.commom.test

The first option has the testing code within the same folder hierarchy
which makes it harder to separate the two physically at "release" time
without writing some complicated scripts to selectively exclude items.
In the Java world the second option is the standard, and my preference
if it's possible.

I suspect that some of my import / from problems stem from the fact
that I want to use a standard base package for all my projects to avoid
namespace issues. ie all my projects use packages of the form

a.b.c.projectName

where a.b.c is my namespace (dns address actually)

a.b.c.common
a.b.c.project1
a.b.c.project2

Is this not the way python projects should be packaged?

Is there a problem with having a common base package name like this?

ie does the first instance of the package a.b.c effectively mask out
the others so that if a.b.c.common occurs first in the PYTHONPATH then
a.b.c.project1 will never be found as the "a.b.c" package is only
loaded from the a.b.c.common folder?

Does anyone else have any issues with running a master test suite and
indvidual tests. It seems that if I set up the imports/froms for the
master testsuite then I can't run the tests individuallly and vice
versa ... unless I remove all packages and have a single flat
directory. There has got to be big projects written in python that need
to separate out their testing code according to some logical grouping.

thanks
          Todd