[Python-Dev] Relative Package Imports

Guido van Rossum guido@CNRI.Reston.VA.US
Mon, 13 Sep 1999 09:40:10 -0400


> Note that I did not want to start a discussion about absolute vs.
> relative names (I believe everybody agrees that realtive file names
> are a Good Thing). The 'import __.module' thing is not new: ni.py
> had support for this and my patch simply adds it back to the
> implementation.

It was left out of the 1.5 package implementation on purpose, and I
will fight proposals to get it back.  It is an ugly hack that deserves 
to die.  So there!

> "Absolute" means fully qualified name, i.e. the complete path to 
> the modules from the top-level root via all subpackage down to the
> module name itself, e.g. TextTools.Constants.TagTable.

No disagreement there.

BTW, The compatibility issues with class references in object
databases need to be resolved in a different way -- package renamings
are but one of the problems here.

--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)