namespace question

[Elaine Jackson]

I would like to be able to write a function f, which will live in a module M,
and will call a function g, such that, when f is imported from M into the
interpreter, and invoked there, its invokation of g will return the
interpreter's global namespace. Is there a way to do this and, if so, how?
Muchas gracias for any and all assistance.

Peace

[Phil Frost]

I'm not sure I understand what you are asking, but maybe globals() is
what you want?

On Thu, Sep 02, 2004 at 01:52:46PM +0000, Elaine Jackson wrote:

I would like to be able to write a function f, which will live in a module M,
and will call a function g, such that, when f is imported from M into the
interpreter, and invoked there, its invokation of g will return the
interpreter's global namespace. Is there a way to do this and, if so, how?
Muchas gracias for any and all assistance.

Peace

[Peter Hansen]

Elaine Jackson wrote:

I would like to be able to write a function f, which will live in a module M,
and will call a function g, such that, when f is imported from M into the
interpreter, and invoked there, its invokation of g will return the
interpreter's global namespace.

What does that last part mean? There is no such thing as the
"interpreter's global namespace". Each module is its own namespace.

-Peter

[Elaine Jackson]

By "the interpreter's global namespace" I mean the dictionary that gets returned
if you evaluate 'globals()' in the interpreter.

"Peter Hansen" <pe***@engcorp.com> wrote in message
news:Ua********************@powergate.ca...
| Elaine Jackson wrote:
| > I would like to be able to write a function f, which will live in a module
M,
| > and will call a function g, such that, when f is imported from M into the
| > interpreter, and invoked there, its invokation of g will return the
| > interpreter's global namespace.
|
| What does that last part mean? There is no such thing as the
| "interpreter's global namespace". Each module is its own namespace.
|
| -Peter

[Elaine Jackson]

It's what I want in the sense that it returns the correct dictionary when
globals is invoked interactively. What I want is to have a function that can be
imported into the interpreter and that will return that same dictionary.

"Phil Frost" <in****@bitglue.com> wrote in message
news:ma**************************************@pyth on.org...
| I'm not sure I understand what you are asking, but maybe globals() is
| what you want?
|
| On Thu, Sep 02, 2004 at 01:52:46PM +0000, Elaine Jackson wrote:
| > I would like to be able to write a function f, which will live in a module
M,
| > and will call a function g, such that, when f is imported from M into the
| > interpreter, and invoked there, its invokation of g will return the
| > interpreter's global namespace. Is there a way to do this and, if so, how?
| > Muchas gracias for any and all assistance.
| >
| > Peace

[Alex Martelli]

Elaine Jackson <el***************@home.com> wrote:

I would like to be able to write a function f, which will live in a module M,
and will call a function g, such that, when f is imported from M into the
interpreter, and invoked there, its invokation of g will return the
interpreter's global namespace. Is there a way to do this and, if so, how?
Muchas gracias for any and all assistance.

There is no "interpreter global namespace". If you mean the namespace
of the calling module (which could be the interactive session's __main__
if that's who did the importing) you can get there via sys._getframe --
it's meant for debugging purposes (note the leading underscore) but it
will work. If you mean the namespace of __main__ (which could be the
interactive session if there is one) you can get the __main__ module
anywhere as sys.modules['__main__'] and a vars call around that will
give the module's dictionary (which is, I assume, what you mean by
namespace).
Alex

[Peter Hansen]

Elaine Jackson wrote:

By "the interpreter's global namespace" I mean the dictionary that gets returned
if you evaluate 'globals()' in the interpreter.

As Alex said then:

(in module nstest.py):
import __main__
vars(__main__)['spam'] = 'baz'

(in interactive session with extra spacing for readability):
c:\>python

globals() {'__builtins__': <module '__builtin__' (built-in)>, '__name__':
'__main__', '__doc__': None}
import nstest dir() ['__builtins__', '__doc__', '__name__', 'nstest', 'spam']
globals()

{'__builtins__': <module '__builtin__' (built-in)>, '__name__':
'__main__', 'nstest': <module 'nstest' from 'nstest.py'>, '__doc__':
None, 'spam': 'baz'}

-Peter

[Alex Martelli]

Elaine Jackson <el***************@home.com> wrote:

It's what I want in the sense that it returns the correct dictionary when
globals is invoked interactively. What I want is to have a function that
can be
imported into the interpreter and that will return that same dictionary.

so what's wrong with:

def main_dictionary():
import __main__
return vars(__main__)
???

[Bengt Richter]

On Fri, 3 Sep 2004 08:11:35 +0200, al*****@yahoo.com (Alex Martelli) wrote:

Elaine Jackson <el***************@home.com> wrote:

I would like to be able to write a function f, which will live in a module M,
and will call a function g, such that, when f is imported from M into the
interpreter, and invoked there, its invokation of g will return the
interpreter's global namespace. Is there a way to do this and, if so, how?
Muchas gracias for any and all assistance.

There is no "interpreter global namespace". If you mean the namespace
of the calling module (which could be the interactive session's __main__
if that's who did the importing) you can get there via sys._getframe --
it's meant for debugging purposes (note the leading underscore) but it
will work. If you mean the namespace of __main__ (which could be the
interactive session if there is one) you can get the __main__ module
anywhere as sys.modules['__main__'] and a vars call around that will
give the module's dictionary (which is, I assume, what you mean by
namespace).

This brings up the question of standard terminology (e.g. for namespace).
If one googles for python glossary, the top references are mostly

http://manatee.mojam.com/python-glossary

which seems not to have caught on so far (mea culpa too, since it takes volunteers ;-/ ).

Anyway, my take on 'namespace' is a name->value mapping. I.e., pretty abstract.
Then follows a discussion of various python mechanisms that do that (whether via
a single dict's d[name] mapping or the infinite d.get(name, default) mapping,
or the mapping implicit in the search, e.g., for a bare name using a function's
local name lookup rules (local, closure, global, builtin) -- not to mention the
mapping names undergo when used as attribute names in various ways.

Compared to other languages, python's name spaces (in my sense) seem to have
evolved interestingly ;-) I am wondering whether the future holds a more unified
model of namespaces and their access mechanisms, so most inspect and sys._getframe
name access hacks will be obviated.

Re defintions, perhaps it is time to reinvigorate Skip's wiki or something like that?

There was an interesting thread re improving python doc functionality at

http://mail.python.org/pipermail/pyt...ay/219682.html

An online extension of help() maybe taking a syntax clue from google ,like

help('define:xxx')

might be an interesting hook into a glossary of definitions.

Regards,
Bengt Richter