[py-dev] Re: Error with py.test and scipy ...

[Paul Moore]

On Apr 8, 2005 1:28 AM, Ian Bicking <ianb at colorstudy.com> wrote:

> I wonder if people are overloading the idea of "module" when really they
> want to create entirely new kinds of objects-built-from-Python-files
> that aren't modules at all.  Do we need a new metaphor?  Do we need one
> Magic But Really Well Spec'ed import hook that will satisfy everyone's
> needs?

PEP 302 was intended to unify the import hook landscape, and make it
easier for hooks to work together. My impression is that it failed,
but I'm not sure why. My name is on the PEP, but I really only did
documentation, testing, and a little bit of design. Most of the good
stuff was Just's.

I'd like to think that "tidying up" PEP 302 would solve the issues,
but I don't really have a good use case - my interest was with regard
to zip imports, and the sort of areas that eggs are addressing, but I
was looking forward to a situation where PEP 302 hooks were
established, and there would be no need to cater for custom
approaches. Sadly, I no longer see that day approaching :-(

An immediate question springs to mind - what is the py magic doing,
and how does PEP 302 fail to cater for its needs? (Repeat this
question for any other package with nasty import magic).

Paul.

PS While I'm opening this can of worms again, I can't offer any
assistance making things happen in the code, as I am no longer able to
build/patch Python (I only have MSVC6). So any changes which seem
needed will require a champion...