Purge workaround for docs build

[erlend-aasland]

canopen/network.py contains the following docs build workaround:

https://github.com/christiansandberg/canopen/blob/3aa509db9fea8094516e5eb717be3df182f0751a/canopen/network.py#L8-L17

I suggest to purge this hack from network.py; the RTD config already installs canopen as a package, which implicitly installs can. Moreover, purging this workaround will make it easier to add type annotations for network.py.

[friederschueler]

Yes, I think this is a good change.

[sveinse]

Yes, please. With type annotation checks we'd need code something like this to circumvent the conditional:

from typing import TYPE_CHECKING

try:
    import can
    from can import Listener
    from can import CanError
except ImportError:
    # Type checkers don't like this conditional logic, so it is only run when
    # not type checking
    if not TYPE_CHECKING:
        # Do not fail if python-can is not installed
        can = None
        CanError = Exception
        class Listener:
            """ Dummy listener """

[acolomb]

I'd like to go back to the basics of this issue. How exactly is this related to the documentation build?

Could it have merit for other use cases?

Sorry, I just haven't fully grasped what this passage is meant to do in the first place.

[erlend-aasland]

I'd like to go back to the basics of this issue. How exactly is this related to the documentation build?

The except clause was historically added and changed with these commits (new to old):

• d2748f9: fix RTD build
• 4e06448: related to a series of documentation build changes
• a20f80f: ditto

When these workarounds were added, there was no doc/requirements.txt, no .readthedocs.yaml. Not having python-can installed would render the library totally useless at any of these three points in time; hence, the changes were made because of other reasons, and d2748f9 is explicit about it: fix the RTD build.

Could it have merit for other use cases?

No; the code is completely broken if the imports fail; python-can is a hard dependency for canopen. This goes for the state of the code base for all three referenced commits.

[acolomb]

Ah, thanks for the explanation @erlend-aasland. That's what I wanted to know, and especially it seems there was no special funky use-case that required this.

[erlend-aasland]

No sweat, it's always good to be reminded about Chesterton's Fence :)