from __future__ import absolute_import issue

[LittleGrasshopper]

On May 23, 6:39 pm, "Gabriel Genellina" <gagsl-... at yahoo.com.ar>
wrote:
> En Sat, 23 May 2009 12:32:24 -0300, LittleGrasshopper  
> <seattleha... at yahoo.com> escribió:
>
>
>
> > On May 22, 12:42 am, "Gabriel Genellina" <gagsl-... at yahoo.com.ar>
> > wrote:
> >> En Wed, 20 May 2009 20:18:02 -0300, LittleGrasshopper  
> >> <seattleha... at yahoo.com> escribió:
>
> >> > It appears that either absolute imports (or my brain) aren't working.
> >> > Given a module string.py which is in the same directory as a.py:
>
> >> > #File a.py
> >> > from __future__ importabsolute_import
> >> > import string
> >> > print string # Module imported is string.py in current directory, not
> >> > standard library module
>
> >>absolute_importhelps with imports inside a package (those are  
> >> "relative"  
> >> imports, relative to the package). If a module is located in a  
> >> directory  
> >> listed in sys.path, an absolute import will find it. I don't think  
> >> there  
> >> is a way to avoid shadowing a standard module (other than ensuring the  
> >> standard directories come first in sys.path).
>
> > You are right. If you have a directory in your PYTHONPATH before the
> > standard library directories that has a string module, for example,
> >absolute_importwill not help you. I was getting confused by the fact
> > that when I print sys.path from the python shell, the first entry is
> > an empty string.
> > This empty string must denote the current directory though, because:
>
> > ['', '/usr/lib/python25.zip', '/usr/lib/python2.5', '/usr/lib/ ...]
>
> > When I have this sys.path, doing an "import string" from a module
> > where I have absolute imports enabled will still import the string
> > module in the package (which also means it is in the same directory in
> > this case.)
>
> Mmm, I don't understand this. Do you mean that the current directory is a  
> package (that is, it contains an __init__.py file? And the main script is  
> there? Then, from Python's POV, it is NOT a package; packages are  
> recognized only at import time; if you execute a script that happens to be  
> inside a package directory, Python is not aware of the "packageness" of  
> such directory.
> In that case, all imports are absolute.
> The current directory should not be a package (at least, not a package  
> accessible from sys.path), nasty things may happen.
>
> > So I think my string.py is being imported not because it
> > is in the same package, but because the home directory is searched
> > first.
>
> Yes.
>
> > The empty string doesn't make much sense though (at least in a
> > Unix system, you would imagine it would be something like './') but I
> > guess that synce Python is platform independent, the empty string is
> > taken to denote the current directory.
>
> Maybe you're surprised, but I don't think it's strange at all. Nobody  
> writes open("./foo.txt") instead of open("foo.txt"), and  
> os.path.normpath("./foo.txt") is actually "foo.txt". Having no path  
> specification means "use the current directory" (at least in all OS that I  
> know of, where "process' current directory" makes any sense)
>
> --
> Gabriel Genellina

Thank you for the insightful discussion, Gabriel. I was conducting
some testing with serious flaws. I think you have pointed the problem
exactly. What I was doing is: I had a directory with an __init__.py
file on it, and inside I had a test module, plus a string.py module.
My test was flawed because what I was doing is starting a python shell
from the directory in question, and then importing the test module in
the shell. I was expecting that when string was imported from within
the test module (in which I was using absolute_import) the standard
string module would be imported, but the string module in the same
package was being imported instead. The key is that it was being
imported not because it was in the same package, but because it was in
the home (current) directory. I think that explains everything, let me
know if you see any flaw in my reasoning.

And I agree with you about the current directory being denoted by an
empty string being expected. My mind was a little warped at the moment
I wrote that.