Goal
Get familiar with the fundamental terms of a Python project.
Project, Packages, Modules, And Scripts
- Project: A directory, also known as the top-level package, which contains packages and modules
- Package (in a project): a directory which contains modules and/or packages (sub-directories)
-
Module: a Python script (
.py) which can be imported withimportandfrom -
Script: a Python script (
.py) which can be exected from the terminal. This will be the only reference to the word script, since we're not scripting, we're developing a Python package
Packages Which Are Not Part Of The Project
-
Package (built-in): A package that is shipped with Python and can be imported with
importandfrom. For example, os, pathlib, etc. -
Package (pip): A package that was installed by pip and can be either imported with
importandfrom, or get executed from the command-line (terminal). Think about it, pip stands for Package Installer for Python. For example numpy, pillow, etc.
Importing Project Modules
- Python project's packages and modules can be (and should be) imported with relative paths from any module which is part of the same project. An example is available in src/appy/core/app.py
from ..utils import message, img_ascii
- If you intend to import a package or a module that is not part of the same project, you'll have to use absolute paths. This can be done with importlib, see this StackOverflow Question.
Why do relative imports raise a problem in pylint?
I don't know, all I can say is that it doesn't happen with flake8, I'm referring to the following warning
Attempted relative import beyond top-level-package pylint(relative-beyond-top-level)
This blog post is part of the Python Project series, and is based on this GitHub repository - unfor19/python-project.
The GitHub repo includes an example of a Python project, and Wiki Pages that describe the necessary steps for developing, creating and distributing a Python package.
Originally published at github.com/unfor19/python-project on October 30, 2020
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