Python's import situation has driven me to the brink of imsanity

[Kevin Conway]

> My question is: is this crazy? Please tell me there's a better way and I
just wasted my time creating this package.

There is a better way and you have wasted your time creating this package.

I hear your problem statement as asking two questions. The first is: What
is the right way to include executable content in my Python project? The
second is: How do I expose executable content from a Python project?

As to the first question, from your project README:
> Say you have a python project (not a package), with the following
structure:

All Python code that you want to install and make available in any form,
import or executable, _must_ be contained within a Python package.
Organizing Python code in any way other than Python packages will result in
the challenges you have described. The correct way to include executable
content is to place the Python code within the package structure. It should
not be put in other directories within the repository root.

As to the second question, once all Python code is contained within a
package that can be installed you can use setuptools entry points to expose
the executable code. The setup() function from setuptools that is used to
create setup.py files has an argument called 'entry_points' that allows you
to expose executable content over the command line. See [1] and [2] for
more details.

Feel free to reach out to me off-list if you have a specific project you
need advice on. The rules for organizing and packaging Python code aren't
complex but they tend to cause new Python developers to stumble at first. A
general rule I give everyone when talking about packaging or importing
code: If you have to modify sys.path to makes something work then you have
most certainly made a mistake.

[1]
https://pythonhosted.org/setuptools/setuptools.html#automatic-script-creation
[2]
http://python-packaging.readthedocs.org/en/latest/command-line-scripts.html#the-console-scripts-entry-point


On Sat, Feb 6, 2016 at 8:54 PM Chris Angelico <rosuav at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Sun, Feb 7, 2016 at 1:47 PM,  <dimva13 at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Imsanity allows you to make imports usable (not ideal, but at least
> usable) for python projects without having to manage PYTHONPATHs or do
> whacky stuff like running files with python -m or put even whackier
> boilerplate at the top of every file. And all it requires is 'import
> imsanity' at the top of every file. You can put it in a macro or even just
> type it because it's short and easy to remember.
> >
> > My question is: is this crazy? Please tell me there's a better way and I
> just wasted my time creating this package. There's nothing I'd like to hear
> more.
>
> Well, anything that makes you type "import imsanity" at the top of
> every script MUST be crazy. :) I don't know about the actual
> content/purpose though. Good luck with it!
>
> ChrisA
> --
> https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
>