Re: [Visualpython-users] Experimental clean import capability

[Bruce S. <bas...@nc...>]

A colleague correctly points out that "vpython" isn't an appropriate
name for the other module, because of confusion with the cover term
(VPython = Visual+Python). A better name might be for example
visual_parts; note that whatever the name is, presumably it will get
imported with a short name (much as the scipy world settled on import
numpy as np). You're invited to suggest a better name.

Bruce Sherwood

On Sat, Oct 9, 2010 at 10:11 PM, Bruce Sherwood <bas...@nc...> wrote:
> In the "For developers" section of vpython.org is a zip file
> containing experimental code for doing either the convenient "from
> visual import *" or a clean "import vpython". Please try this out and
> post comments about whether this would meet your needs, or how it
> should be changed, or offer a different scheme entirely. Once we reach
> agreement, this will become a part of VPython 5.4 for Python 2.7 and
> Python 3.1.
>
> I was able to follow the suggestion to put almost everything in the
> new vpython folder, so that the visual folder mostly just imports from
> the vpython folder. I thought it might be possible, and clean, to put
> the two modules inside one folder, but that doesn't work. I'm very
> hazy on how the import search works. If you see a way to have one
> folder rather than two, please explain.
>
> As far as I can tell from my tests, there is complete backward
> compatibility with existing programs.
>
> Bruce Sherwood
>
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Here are the installation instructions in the accompanying README file:
>
> 1) Before making any changes to your current site-packages, make a copy of
>
>     site-packages/visual
>
> 2) Replace site-packages/visual with the visual folder in this package.
>
> 3) Add to site-packages the vpython folder in this package.
>
> 4) From your saved copy of site-packages/visual, copy into the new
> vpython folder
>
>     cvisual.pyd (Windows) or
>     cvisual.so (Mac)
>
> 5) On Windows, from your saved copy of site-packages/visual, copy the doc and
>   examples folders into the new visual folder.
>
> After making these changes, you can still use "from visual import *" if that is
> convenient, but if you want to import the visual objects cleanly, import them
> from the new vpython module. Here are two simple examples:
>
> import vpython as vp
> vp.box(color=vp.color.orange, material=vp.materials.wood)
>
> from vpython import (box, color, materials)
> box(color=color.orange, material=materials.wood)
>
> There are new clean modules vpython.controls, vpython.filedialog, and
> vpython.graph
> that can be used instead of the old modules visual.controls,
> visual.filedialog, and
> visual.graph. The old modules execute "from visual import *" and are
> retained because
> some programs expect that behavior when importing one of these modules.
>