[Python-Dev] elementtree in stdlib

Fri Apr 7 19:48:58 CEST 2006

Nick Coghlan wrote:
> Georg Brandl wrote:
>> Greg Ewing wrote:
>>> Trent Mick wrote:
>>>>>>> try:
>>>> import xml.etree.ElementTree as ET # in python >=2.5
>>>> except ImportError:
>>> > ... etc ad nauseam
>>>>>> For situations like this I've thought it might
>>> be handy to be able to say
>>>>>> import xml.etree.ElementTree or cElementTree or \
>>> elementtree.ElementTree or lxml.etree as ET
>>>> Suppose I wanted to implement that, what would be the best strategy
>> to follow:
>> - change handling of IMPORT_NAME and IMPORT_FROM in ceval.c
>> - emit different bytecodes in compile.c
>> - directly create TryExcept AST nodes in ast.c
>> Definitely option 3, since you only have to modify the parser and the AST 
> compiler.
>> To change it in compile.c, you have to first modify the parser, the AST 
> definition and the AST compiler in order to get the info to the bytecode compiler.
>> To change it in ceval.c, you have to first modify the parser, the AST 
> definition, the AST compiler and the bytecode compiler in order to get the 
> info to the eval loop.
>> Given that import statements aren't supposed to be in time critical code, go 
> for the easy option :)

Well, if there's an encouraging word from more developers, I can try it.
Georg