In my limited knowledge and understanding, python's import system is actually better than ruby's (since by default you avoid dumping stuff in the global namespaces) and java's (since you can rename on import).
I believe modern perl has some nice things such as versions, "unimport" statements and explicit client control of import hooks?
Indeed, Perl6 has module and class vesioning [1] at the 'language' level. It's pretty interesting on paper, just like everything else about Perl6 (imho).
I wouldn't call populating the global namespace with a modules' contents an inferior default. Some like it that way and I'm glad that Python is flexible enough to allow both implicit and explicit imports.
In my limited knowledge and understanding, python's import system is actually better than ruby's (since by default you avoid dumping stuff in the global namespaces) and java's (since you can rename on import).
I believe modern perl has some nice things such as versions, "unimport" statements and explicit client control of import hooks?
Please correct me if I'm wrong.