Re: How to organize Python files in a (relatively) big project

[toki doki]

Hello again,

Actually, I found a (pretty ugly) workaround to my problem: In every
__init__.py of the subdirectories I created, I add the following lines:

import os.path,sys
for directory,sub_dir,files in os.walk(os.path.normpath(os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__),..))):
  sys.path.append(directory)

That add all of the sub-directories of the parent directory to the
sys.path. I can then move my files in the directories I want without
having to change a single line in them.
it may not be very elegant, but for the moment, it will do. 

Actually, after thinking about it, I think that my problem is more a
problem with the os than with python. subdirectories are the only
method most OS provide for file organization. If there was a method
for, for example, add labels to files and then browse files according
to the labels, I wouldn't have this problem. (ok, I could arrange that
with the names of the files, but it doesn't feel the same for me).

Jason Actually, unless I am wrong, you don't need to add the path
of the package with a .pth . It should be done automatically when you
import it.

Giovanni
The usual way is to do import pkgN and then dereference

What do you call 'dereference'? do you mean something like 'import spam.foo foo=spam.foo' ?

My preferred way is to have __init__.py just do from submodules
import *, and then each submodule defines __all__ to specify which are
its public symbols.

Your solution soud interesting (although it doesn't exactly do what I
want in the present case). I would consider it when I have to do
hierarchical packages. However, I think I read somewhere that from
module import * statements could cause (probably small) performance
issue. Do you think this can be the case here?

Anyway, thank you all for your very interesting replies. (and sorry for the double-post)

TokiDoki

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How to organize Python files in a (relatively) big project

[toki doki]

Hello there,

I have been programming python for a little while, now. But as I am
beginning to do more complex stuff, I am running into small
organization problems.
It is possible that what I want to obtain is not possible, but I would
appreciate the advice of more experienced python programmers.

I am writing a relatively complex program in python that has now around 40 files. 
At first, I had all of my files in one single directory, but now, with
the increasing number of files, it is becoming hard to browse my
directory.
So, I would want to be able to divide the files between 8 directory,
according to their purpose. The problem is that it breaks the
'import's between my files. And besides,AFAIK, there is no
easy way to import a file that is not in a subdirectory of the current
file (I suppose I could adjust the os.path in every file, but that
seems not very elegant to me).
I thought about turning the whole into a package. But I have to change every 'import module_name' into
'from package_name.sub_directory_name import module_name'
which is a little bit time consuming and not very flexible (if I change
my mind about the subdirectory a file belongs to, I will have to track
again every import to correct them)

So, basically, here is the point: is there an 'elegant' way to keep my
files in separate directory and still be able to import between them
with simple 'import filename'?

And if not, what would be the standard way to organize numerous python files belonging to the same project?

Thanks a lot for any advice,

TokiDoki

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