You bring up good points, but how would you implement something like this in 
smalltalk?  A "compilation unit" (and thus a lookup context) in python is a 
file.  A "compilation unit" in smalltalk is a method.


>From: Andreas Raab <andreas.raab at gmx.de>
>Reply-To: The general-purpose Squeak developers 
>list<squeak-dev at lists.squeakfoundation.org>
>To: The general-purpose Squeak developers 
>list<squeak-dev at lists.squeakfoundation.org>
>Subject: Re: Squeak and Namespaces
>Date: Wed, 29 Nov 2006 20:00:26 -0800
>
>stephane ducasse wrote:
>>>And, I think imports are critical for scalability - because they a) 
>>>declare dependencies explicitly and b) allow the *user* of a 
>>>package/global to decide under which name to use them. The Python module 
>>>system works that way and it works great.
>>
>>Can you give an example? Do you mean that you can alias them?
>
>No, I mean that a user can decide what's important for him and where to 
>qualify and where not. For example, consider that both Tweak and Morphic 
>define a class named Button. In Goran's proposal it means that you always 
>have to qualify Button everywhere you see it; even in the innards of 
>Morphic and Tweak where there is not the slightest chance of it meaning 
>anything but what is reasonable in this context. In Python's module system 
>you could (in the scope you are working in; usually a file) decide to 
>either use only Tweak (and not qualify) or use only Morphic (and not 
>qualify) or use Tweak qualified and Morphic unqualified, or vice versa, or 
>use both qualified.
>
>In either case it puts the user in control about what is important for him 
>in the context he is working in instead of the system making requirements 
>about qualifications of names because in some distant corner of the world a 
>name has been used.
>
>Cheers,
>   - Andreas
>
>

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