On Thu, Apr 15, 2021 at 4:55 PM Christopher Barker <python...@gmail.com>
wrote:
> Presumably that's why importlib.metadata exists in the stdlib.
>
I was so hopeful about this, but in the end... not really. I have not used
this capability before. Here are a few different situations I know of:
>>> import re, statistics, pandas, vaex, bs4
>>> for mod in [re, statistics, pandas, vaex, bs4]:
... try:
... print(mod.__name__, end=" ")
... print(mod.__version__)
... except:
... print("__version__ not present")
...
re 2.2.1
statistics __version__ not present
pandas 1.2.4
vaex {'vaex': '4.1.0', 'vaex-core': '4.1.0', 'vaex-viz': '0.5.0',
'vaex-hdf5': '0.7.0', 'vaex-server': '0.4.0', 'vaex-astro': '0.8.0',
'vaex-jupyter': '0.6.0', 'vaex-ml': '0.11.1'}
bs4 4.9.3
>>> for mod in [re, statistics, pandas, vaex, bs4]:
... try:
... print(mod.__name__, version(mod.__name__))
... except Exception as err:
... print(mod.__name__, repr(err))
...
re PackageNotFoundError('re')
statistics PackageNotFoundError('statistics')
pandas 1.2.4
vaex 4.1.0
bs4 PackageNotFoundError('bs4')
It seems like (somehow or another) importlib.metadata is doing something
perhaps more useful for vaex. But it is doing distinctly worse for re,
statistics, and bs4.
Version is arguably useful from the package user side. As I believe Victor
> mentioned, there are two uses for version information: display to the user
> -- for which version strings are fine, or programmatic comparison -- for
> which something like the Version object is very helpful. Do we only need to
> use version information programmatically when we are creating (or
> installing) packages? I don't think so -- I know I have code that (poorly)
> does version checking programmatically.
>
I think the key thing that Chris and I are pointing to is that there is a
definite use for versions that is NOT for package maintainers/creators.
Interactive use is definitely one such case, and eyeballing something, even
if it is the oddball use that Vaex has, can help with figuring out an
issue. But in actual code, I relatively often do something like this. Or
rather, the below is what I would find really nice to be able to do.
ver = robust_version(module)
if ver >= (5, 2, 1):
doit_modern_style()
elif ver < (5, 2, 1):
doit_old_style
else:
doit_unversioned_style()
I'd like code like that to ALWAYS succeed. No exceptions raised. And it
would *usually* use reasonable heuristics to figure out some sort of
structured version info as well as is possible. I.e. probably look in
several places and return some custom object that represents a "best
effort." That object might be like NaN in being neither less than nor more
than other things, in the fallback case.
--
The dead increasingly dominate and strangle both the living and the
not-yet born. Vampiric capital and undead corporate persons abuse
the lives and control the thoughts of homo faber. Ideas, once born,
become abortifacients against new conceptions.
_______________________________________________
Python-Dev mailing list -- python-dev@python.org
To unsubscribe send an email to python-dev-le...@python.org
https://mail.python.org/mailman3/lists/python-dev.python.org/
Message archived at
https://mail.python.org/archives/list/python-dev@python.org/message/4575HZHNN45FNOTKH5DSD6NKNRUJGXFU/
Code of Conduct: http://python.org/psf/codeofconduct/
