When to put my modules

[Bob van der Poel]

I'm working on a moderately sized application and I'm planning on having
a fair number of modules. The only question in my mind is: where do I
put the modules ... and how do I let python know about them?

I could put them with the rest of the python lib, but I'm not really
presumtious to do that.

I can keep them all in the current directory, but that forces the user
to chd to a certain location all the time.

Best, I think, is to put them in a program specific location. My program
needs some other data files, etc. so I'm thinking that I can just put
the python stuff in /usr/local/lib/MYPROGRAM/modules.

Okay, but what about when I'm just working on them? In this case I'd
like them to be in my current working dir.

Is there a magic line I need to add to the top of the main module to set
the path up?

Apologies if this is covered in a document...but I can't see to find
anything. Maybe this is a faq?

--
Bob van der Poel ** Wynndel, British Columbia, CANADA **
EMAIL: bvdpoel@kootena y.com
WWW: http://www.kootenay.com/~bvdpoel

[Yermat]

Re: When to put my modules

Hi,

"Bob van der Poel" <bvdpoel@kooten ay.com> a écrit dans le message de
news:3ff0e744_1 @dns.sd54.bc.ca[color=blue]
> I'm working on a moderately sized application and I'm planning on
> having a fair number of modules. The only question in my mind is:
> where do I put the modules ... and how do I let python know about
> them?[/color]

see http://www.python.org/doc/current/tut/node8.html especially the 6.1.1
[color=blue]
> I could put them with the rest of the python lib, but I'm not really
> presumtious to do that.[/color]

Not that good...
[color=blue]
> I can keep them all in the current directory, but that forces the user
> to chd to a certain location all the time.
>
> Best, I think, is to put them in a program specific location. My
> program needs some other data files, etc. so I'm thinking that I can
> just put the python stuff in /usr/local/lib/MYPROGRAM/modules.[/color]

Not that good too. You may want to re-use your module later in another
program...
[color=blue]
> Okay, but what about when I'm just working on them? In this case I'd
> like them to be in my current working dir.
>
> Is there a magic line I need to add to the top of the main module to
> set the path up?
>
> Apologies if this is covered in a document...but I can't see to find
> anything. Maybe this is a faq?[/color]

What I'm doing is something like this :
All my module are in a directory such as /home/loic/MyPython/.
I set the PYTHONPATH to that directory.
I've got for example a module rtf in /home/loic/MyPython/rtf/, another one
Heredis in /home/loic/MyPython/Heredis and my program is in
/home/loic/MyPython/Heredis2Gedcom for example.
In that way, I don't mix my module with standard one. Every program can
access all non program specific module.

For other tips, look at sys.path too.

Hope it help !
Yermat

[Bob van der Poel]

Re: When to put my modules



Yermat wrote:[color=blue]
> Hi,
>
> "Bob van der Poel" <bvdpoel@kooten ay.com> a écrit dans le message de
> news:3ff0e744_1 @dns.sd54.bc.ca
>[color=green]
>>I'm working on a moderately sized application and I'm planning on
>>having a fair number of modules. The only question in my mind is:
>>where do I put the modules ... and how do I let python know about
>>them?[/color]
>
>
> see http://www.python.org/doc/current/tut/node8.html especially the 6.1.1
>[/color]

Okay...so I just need to add paths to the sys.path variable. Seems
simple enough. Thanks.
[color=blue][color=green]
>>I could put them with the rest of the python lib, but I'm not really
>>presumtious to do that.[/color]
>
>
> Not that good...
>
>[color=green]
>>I can keep them all in the current directory, but that forces the user
>>to chd to a certain location all the time.
>>
>>Best, I think, is to put them in a program specific location. My
>>program needs some other data files, etc. so I'm thinking that I can
>>just put the python stuff in /usr/local/lib/MYPROGRAM/modules.[/color]
>
>
> Not that good too. You may want to re-use your module later in another
> program...
>[/color]

Well, probably not. The modules I'm talking about here are pretty
specific to my program.
[color=blue][color=green]
>>Okay, but what about when I'm just working on them? In this case I'd
>>like them to be in my current working dir.
>>
>>Is there a magic line I need to add to the top of the main module to
>>set the path up?
>>
>>Apologies if this is covered in a document...but I can't see to find
>>anything. Maybe this is a faq?[/color]
>
>
> What I'm doing is something like this :
> All my module are in a directory such as /home/loic/MyPython/.
> I set the PYTHONPATH to that directory.
> I've got for example a module rtf in /home/loic/MyPython/rtf/, another one
> Heredis in /home/loic/MyPython/Heredis and my program is in
> /home/loic/MyPython/Heredis2Gedcom for example.
> In that way, I don't mix my module with standard one. Every program can
> access all non program specific module.
>
> For other tips, look at sys.path too.
>
> Hope it help !
> Yermat[/color]

Yes, it does help. Just to clearify, the program I'm working on will be
distributed to other users. So, putting the modules in a
my-personal-python-stuff directory isn't really an option. They most
likely need to go in the main python tree (which, again, I don't like),
or in a program specific directory. Setting PYTHONPATH is an option, but
I don't like to force a user to set an env variable just to run my
program. Yes, I could turn my prog into a shell script which sets the
variable, and then runs the *real* program, but I always find that
method to be a bit convoluted.
[color=blue]
>[/color]

--
Bob van der Poel ** Wynndel, British Columbia, CANADA **
EMAIL: bvdpoel@kootena y.com
WWW: http://www.kootenay.com/~bvdpoel

[Terry Reedy]

Re: When to put my modules

[color=blue]
> Okay...so I just need to add paths to the sys.path variable. Seems
> simple enough. Thanks.[/color]

If your modules are specific to an application, adding the application
module-dir to the front of sys.path is probably best. If your modules
constitute a library that other Python programmers might want to access
(such as pygame or numerical), then the package should go in
lib/site-packages.

TJR

[Bob van der Poel]

Re: When to put my modules



Terry Reedy wrote:[color=blue][color=green]
>>Okay...so I just need to add paths to the sys.path variable. Seems
>>simple enough. Thanks.[/color]
>
>
> If your modules are specific to an application, adding the application
> module-dir to the front of sys.path is probably best. If your modules
> constitute a library that other Python programmers might want to access
> (such as pygame or numerical), then the package should go in
> lib/site-packages.[/color]

Yes, thanks. And I'll find out soon enuf when I try this, but I suppose
that having a bunch of alternates in the path is not a problem.

--
Bob van der Poel ** Wynndel, British Columbia, CANADA **
EMAIL: bvdpoel@kootena y.com
WWW: http://www.kootenay.com/~bvdpoel