Question

I have a python project, I divided it into two parts, a library part and a
binary part.

For organization reasons, I wanted to have a hierarchy like this:

project/
    lib/
        __init__.py
        module1.py
        module2.py
    bin/
        binary1.py # contains: import module1
        binary2.py # contains: import module2
    doc/
    ...

The problem is, of course, the simple import in binary{1,2}.py doesn’t work, at
least in the coding phase (before installation).

Any suggestions? How do you test your code when you’re coding?

Answer 1

I use absolute imports everywhere.

project/
    __init__.py
    lib/
        __init__.py
        module1.py
        module2.py
    bin/
        __init__.py
        binary1.py # contains: import module1
        binary2.py # contains: import module2
    doc/
    ...

Setting PYTHONPATH to the directory above project, you can import module1 from binary1.py like this:

from project.lib import module1

The __init__.py files can make importing simpler, let’s say in each file you have a class. Usually you would have to import the class like this (inclduding filename):

from project.lib.module1 import Module1

But if you edit lib/__init__.py to contain this line:

from project.lib.module1 import Module1

You can use the namespace of lib to import Module1 directly from lib:

from project.lib import Module1