Scope:

* Python documentation lacks conventions, or at least guidelines,
  to choose a name for a package.

* Python has tools to create and distribute packages.
  Not covered by this issue.

* Python has tools to create namespace packages.
  Not covered by this issue.

* Python has conventions about "syntax" of module names in PEP 8.
  Not covered by this issue.

Goal: add guidelines+conventions about package names in Doc/packaging/

Discussion started at http://mail.python.org/pipermail/distutils-sig/2012-May/018551.html

Jim Fulton said in http://mail.python.org/pipermail/distutils-sig/2012-May/018553.html:

> +1 for an official document (or addition to an existinhg document)
     providing a rational for namespace packages and their naming

Here is a ticket where proposals can be referenced.

Contributions can be pushed on the "doc-package-naming-conventions" branch of https://bitbucket.org/benoitbryon/cpython

Use branch ""doc-package-names" (not only conventions) instead.

See Martin Aspeli's article at http://www.martinaspeli.net/articles/the-naming-of-things-package-names-and-namespaces

Thanks for the report.  You are confusing Python packages and the distributable things that are also called packages (not by most of the distutils docs though where they are named distributions).  PEP 8 covers conventions for naming modules (including packages); PEP 345 defines project names (in a very open way though).  I am not sure the docs need to do more; I will reply to the distutils-sig messages and read the link you provided.

I didn't provided the patch because the work is still at early stage. I planned to provide a patch when the development branch is quite mature.
I created the issue early so that other people can contribute.

But I maybe I'd better read PEP 1 again... because it looks like a PEP (which may lead back to this ticket when it's time for implementation).

I'm to post a proposal to python-list or python-ideas mailing lists.

The proposal has been added to PEPs repository as PEP 423 :
http://hg.python.org/peps/rev/52767ab7e140

Review is about to be started at python-dev@python.org.

To adapt the scope of this issue, in cpython documentation, I am to:

* remove the Doc/packaging/packagenames.rst document
* replace it by references to PEP 423

Obviously, this work requires that PEP 423 is accepted.