Question

I have defined c:/temp/t.py as follows:

class MyClass(object):
    def __init__(self):
        self._my_secret_thing = 1

    def _i_get(self):
        return self._my_secret_thing

    def _i_set(self, value):
        self._my_secret_thing = value

    def _i_delete(self):
        print 'neh!'
        #del self._my_secret_thing

    my_thing = property(_i_get, _i_set, _i_delete,'this document for my_thing')

Then I use Python Shell 2.4.4 as follows:

>> import sys
>>> sys.path.append('c:/temp')
>>> import t
>>> dir(t)
['MyClass', '__author__', '__builtins__', '__doc__', '__file__', '__name__']
>>> t = MyClass()
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<pyshell#11>", line 1, in -toplevel-
    t = MyClass()
NameError: name 'MyClass' is not defined

Question> Why python shell cannot find ‘MyClass’?

Answer 1

You import a module called t. Because of namespacing, everything defined in t has to be accessed through it.

import t
inst = t.MyClass()

If you want to just get the class and discard everything else in the t module, you can do that like so.

from t import MyClass
inst = MyClass()