[Distutils] namespace packages

[P.J. Eby]

At 09:26 PM 4/21/2010 +0200, Manlio Perillo wrote:
>But I do not want to use a feature that it is here for compatiblity
>only, in a new project.

Python itself has supported namespace packages through a stdlib 
utility since Python 2.3, and special import mechanism support has 
been proposed for addition in 3.2.  Zope may have developed the idea, 
and setuptools made it more accessible for people to use, but it's 
been a standard Python feature all along.

The new support in 3.x will also allow setuptools and its clones to 
drop some of their hackier bits of implementation, and hopefully make 
the adoption of namespace packages even more widespread.  While the 
Zen of Python says that flat is better than nested (i.e., "zope.*" 
vs. "org.zope.*" as would be done in Java), it also says that 
namespaces are a great idea, so let's have more of them.  ;-)