[Python-Dev] PEP 382: Namespace Packages

[andrew cooke]

Chris Withers wrote:
> Martin v. Löwis wrote:
>> I propose the following PEP for inclusion to Python 3.1.
>> Please comment.
>
> Would this support the following case:
>
> I have a package called mortar, which defines useful stuff:
>
> from mortar import content, ...
>
> I now want to distribute large optional chunks separately, but ideally
> so that the following will will work:
>
> from mortar.rbd import ...
> from mortar.zodb import ...
> from mortar.wsgi import ...
>
> Does the PEP support this? The only way I can currently think to do this
> would result in:
>
> from mortar import content,..
> from mortar_rbd import ...
> from mortar_zodb import ...
> from mortar_wsgi import ...

i may be misunderstanding, but i think you can already do this.

in lepl i have code spread across many modules (equivalent to your
mortar.rbd, i have lepl.matchers etc).  then in lepl/__init__.py i import
those and define __this__ to export them into the lepl namespace.  so you
can import either do:

from lepl import Literal

or

from lepl.matchers import Literal

and you get the same code.

i copied this from sqlalchemy, but i am sure other packages do something
similar.  it's described in the python docs.

andrew