binding_helper fails when "future" package is installed #24
Description
Ubuntu 14.04 LTS / 64 bit. ROS/Gazebo Jade installed per instructions at "http://wiki.ros.org/jade/Installation/Ubuntu"
I'm working through the tutorials, in order. Everything went well until the first use of "rqt_graph" in the turtle tutorial. This produced the error:
rosrun rqt_graph rqt_graph
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/opt/ros/jade/lib/rqt_graph/rqt_graph", line 8, in <module>
sys.exit(main.main(sys.argv, standalone='rqt_graph.ros_graph.RosGraph'))
File "/opt/ros/jade/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/rqt_gui/main.py", line 59, in main
return super(Main, self).main(argv, standalone=standalone, plugin_argument_provider=plugin_argument_provider, plugin_manager_settings_prefix=str(hash(os.environ['ROS_PACKAGE_PATH'])))
File "/opt/ros/jade/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/qt_gui/main.py", line 336, in main
from python_qt_binding import QT_BINDING
File "/opt/ros/jade/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/python_qt_binding/__init__.py", line 55, in <module>
from .binding_helper import loadUi, QT_BINDING, QT_BINDING_MODULES, QT_BINDING_VERSION # @UnusedImport
File "/opt/ros/jade/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/python_qt_binding/binding_helper.py", line 265, in <module>
getattr(sys, 'SELECT_QT_BINDING_ORDER', None),
File "/opt/ros/jade/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/python_qt_binding/binding_helper.py", line 84, in _select_qt_binding
QT_BINDING_VERSION = binding_loader(required_modules, optional_modules)
File "/opt/ros/jade/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/python_qt_binding/binding_helper.py", line 139, in _load_pyqt
_named_import('PyQt4.%s' % module_name)
File "/opt/ros/jade/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/python_qt_binding/binding_helper.py", line 106, in _named_import
module = builtins.__import__(name)
AttributeError: 'module' object has no attribute '__import__'
For Python 2.7.6, that's a standard error. There is no
builtins.__import__
in Python 2.7.6. It's there in 2.7.9, and 3.x, but not 2.7.6. So, with the stock Python of Ubuntu 14.04 LTS, ROS won't work.
From the Python documentation:
"__import__ is an advanced function that is not needed in everyday Python programming, unlike importlib.import_module()."
It's an internal function which changes between Python releases. Using it in binding_helper created a bug. Importlib should be used instead.
See also "http://answers.ros.org/question/210762/rqt_graph-not-finding-qt4/"