Gathering references for the best way to customize python imports

[asmodehn]

http://blog.dowski.com/2008/07/31/customizing-the-python-import-system/
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3799545/dynamically-importing-python-module/3799609#3799609

[asmodehn]

Interestingly six also has some module proxy to enable lazy loading :
Check the renamed/moved section https://pythonhosted.org/six/

[asmodehn]

One thing to consider also is http://setuptools.readthedocs.io/en/latest/pkg_resources.html
It is different from import mechanism, but could be used for plugin system, and as a prerequisites for optional dependencies...

[asmodehn]

For future reference, the standard python way to dynamically import a module or package is to use https://docs.python.org/2.7/library/importlib.html

[asmodehn]

We should dig more into http://setuptools.readthedocs.io/en/latest/pkg_resources.html#supporting-custom-importers

We are already using pkg_resources, as the standard way to setup path and customize import behavior like in https://github.com/asmodehn/pyros-setup/blob/master/pyros_setup/__init__.py#L20, and also for namespace packages...

Maybe setting up ROS environment can be done as soon as any python code is trying to import a ros package (using pkg_resources and a custom importer for ROS...)

[asmodehn]

Reference : https://docs.python.org/3/library/importlib.html#setting-up-an-importer

[asmodehn]

I guess all of this now belongs there :
pyros-dev/rosimport#4