old_contents: # encoding: utf-8
  """
  A simple utility to import something by its string name.
  
  Authors:
  
  * Brian Granger
  """
  
  #-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
  #  Copyright (C) 2008-2011  The IPython Development Team
  #
  #  Distributed under the terms of the BSD License.  The full license is in
  #  the file COPYING, distributed as part of this software.
  #-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
  
  #-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
  # Functions and classes
  #-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
  
  def import_item(name):
      """Import and return bar given the string foo.bar."""
      package = '.'.join(name.split('.')[0:-1])
      obj = name.split('.')[-1]
      
      # Note: the original code for this was the following.  We've left it
      # visible for now in case the new implementation shows any problems down
      # the road, to make it easier on anyone looking for a problem.  This code
      # should be removed once we're comfortable we didn't break anything.
      
      ## execString = 'from %s import %s' % (package, obj)
      ## try:
      ##     exec execString
      ## except SyntaxError:
      ##     raise ImportError("Invalid class specification: %s" % name)
      ## exec 'temp = %s' % obj
      ## return temp
  
      if package:
          module = __import__(package,fromlist=[obj])
          return module.__dict__[obj]
      else:
          return __import__(obj)
  
new_contents: # encoding: utf-8
  """
  A simple utility to import something by its string name.
  
  Authors:
  
  * Brian Granger
  """
  
  #-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
  #  Copyright (C) 2008-2011  The IPython Development Team
  #
  #  Distributed under the terms of the BSD License.  The full license is in
  #  the file COPYING, distributed as part of this software.
  #-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
  
  #-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
  # Functions and classes
  #-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
  
  def import_item(name):
      """Import and return bar given the string foo.bar."""
      package = '.'.join(name.split('.')[0:-1])
      obj = name.split('.')[-1]
      
      # Note: the original code for this was the following.  We've left it
      # visible for now in case the new implementation shows any problems down
      # the road, to make it easier on anyone looking for a problem.  This code
      # should be removed once we're comfortable we didn't break anything.
      
      ## execString = 'from %s import %s' % (package, obj)
      ## try:
      ##     exec execString
      ## except SyntaxError:
      ##     raise ImportError("Invalid class specification: %s" % name)
      ## exec 'temp = %s' % obj
      ## return temp
  
      if package:
          module = __import__(package,fromlist=[obj])
          try:
              pak = module.__dict__[obj]
          except KeyError:
              raise ImportError('No module named %s' % obj)
          return pak
      else:
          return __import__(obj)
  
subject: Fix error in test suite startup with dotted import names.