[XML-SIG] Python package name

[Guido van Rossum]

> Wouldn't the whole situation be much easier to handle if
> lib/python2/site-packages was searched *before* lib/python2 ?
> 
> That way, newly installed packages could effectively completely
> override stdlib packages.

Not necessarily -- 2.1 will install in lib/python2, so an older
xml package in site-packages would override the newer one from 2.1!

It seems we may have to start thinking about a package versioning
mechanism!

> We will have a similar problem with Unicode and the stdlib
> during the Python 2.0 cycle: people will want to use Unicode
> together with the stdlib, yet many modules in the stdlib
> don't support Unicode. To remedy this, users will have to
> patch the stdlib modules and put them somewhere so that they
> can override the original 2.0 ones.

They can use $PYTHONPATH.

> BTW, with distutils coming on strong I don't really see a
> need for any hacks: instead distutils should be given some
> smart logic to do the right thing, ie. it should support
> installing subpackages of a package. If that's not desired,
> then I'd opt for overriding the whole package (without any
> hacks to import the overridden one).

That's another possibility.  But then distutils will have to become
aware of package versions again.

--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.pythonlabs.com/~guido/)