(This is related to scons but I think most of the following should be fairly general to python)

I would like to define a python file/library that I put in a Well-Known Place somewhere on my computer that I can use to define machine-specific paths, and was looking for help on how to do this well, since I'm a beginner to Python & really only use it for my scons work.

scons uses a SConstruct file which can execute python code. What I would like to do is something like this:

1. My SConstruct file would contain this at the beginning:

   defaultEnv = JJJJJ.getMachineSpecificPaths()
   

   or (do both of these syntaxes work?)

   import JJJJJ
   defaultEnv = getMachineSpecificPaths()
   

2. I define a JJJJJ.py file somewhere installed in the python dir which contains the following

   def getMachineSpecificPaths():
       ... does something here, I don't know what ...
   

   that reads a file machine-specific-paths.txt (maybe it has the code Ross Rogers mentioned in my other question) located in the same directory as JJJJJ.py containing the following:

3. machine-specific-paths.txt

   TI_C28_ROOT   C:/appl/ti/ccs/?4.1.1/ccsv4/tools/co?mpiler/c2000
   JSDB          c:/bin/jsdb/jsdb.exe
   PYTHON_PATH   c:/appl/python/2.6.4
   

The thing is, I don't really know much about the conventions in Python about where you put system-wide libraries and files. This is probably really simple to get right but I don't know how.