Q on naming nested packages/modules

[kj]

In <mailman.809.1251832870.2854.python-list at python.org> "Rami Chowdhury" <rami.chowdhury at gmail.com> writes:

>> An implication of all this is that if now I wanted to create a new
>> module x.y.z.w, this means that the previously "leaf"-module x.y.z
>> would become "non-leaf".  In other words, I'd have to:
>>
>> 1. create the new directory x/y/z
>> 2. *rename* the file x/y/z.py to x/y/z/__init__.py
>> 3. create the file x/y/z/w.py to hold the source for the new x.y.z.w
>>    module

>With regard to point 2 -- would it be possible to just move z.py into  
>x/y/z, and put 'from z import *' into x/y/z/__init__.py, for the same  
>effect? Or is that not a good idea?

I think in this case what you would need is something like 'from
..z import *', but this does not work either; one gets the error
"SyntaxError: 'import *' not allowed with 'from .'".

A third solution would be to change step 2 above to this:

2. create the *symlink* x/y/z/__init__.py --> ../z.py 

This certainly would make things clearer-looking to me.  Having
all these files called the same thing, __init__.py, but having
completely different meaning, makes my head hurt...  In contrast,
the __init__.py *symlinks* would be there just to keep python happy;
the real content is where I'd expect it.

I ran a simple test of this idea and it works, but there may be
some subtle reasons for not doing it...  Or maybe it's not a good
idea simply because it is not the Python way, and I'd agree that
this would be reason enough to avoid it.

kynn