creating variable in root namespace from module

[MakaMaka]

Hi again,
Steve-
I'm trying to use python to model reliability.  Basically, I want to
read an XML file in that defines a bunch of variables, that are then
accessible from the python interpreter.  For example:
import reliability

reliability.read_xml("c:\\somefile.xml") #<== defines x1, x2, x3

result = x1+x2+x3

This tool will be used by people who are not necessarily coders and I
don't want them to have to deal with passing global namespaces etc.

Duncan-
I like your idea; however, I don't want the user to actually have to
know the structure of the xml file, so I don't think I can do it this
way.  There might be 3, 4 or 1000 variables that the function needs to
create.

Any other ideas?  What clever technical ways have been used? I know I
can just have the function add the variables to the global namespace of
the module and then access them like

reliability.x1

or in a dict or something, but I think this might confuse some of my
potential users who aren't familiar with Object Oriented programming
(think electrical engineers who still code in Fortran).

Thanks,
Justin