> [...] I especially hate when language idioms encourage using a shorthand name for the module when importing. Just be explicit!
THIS. 100%!
I also think Python seems to do this better with the namespace pattern of `import x.y.z`. Never seen the `import *` pattern before, didn't know Python can do that (never done Python really though either, only browsed some code here or there).
But one addition to your statement I'd like to add: not just idioms, but documentation can spread this antipattern too.
Noobs come to a language, read the documentation for some tool, library, etc., and understandably come away thinking "Oh ok, this is how it's done" when in reality, while they're not doing anything wrong per se, they're being taught a bad habit right off the bat. And that makes the inevitable hard slap across the face that reality (or a co-worker) eventually hits you with all the more shocking, possibly even leading to resentment of others when this happens.
I myself had this problem many years ago; "why the hell do you need all these subclasses and so many layers of abstraction?!" I once asked. "Because those class/method names already exist within other classes loaded at runtime, or will likely be added in future external dependencies, and we don't want to accidentally overwrite those."
Well, I thought that was a stupid idea. In my (very limited at the time) experience, when I had that problem, I just insisted on finding a damn good descriptive name that wasn't going to be used for anything else, even if it was wicked long or a pain to type. Too long? Don't be lazy. Typos more probable with length? Learn to copy/paste. That was the approach I learned at some point from some documentation somewhere on the internet, and it always worked for me, so it was the "one true path" and all others were inferior, making proponents or users/adherents of any other way "wrong" and inferior to me and my superior, non-lazy intellect. You're telling me that you do it differently? You must be stupid or lazy, and I'm neither therefore I'm better than you; thus forcing me to adopt your inferior standard?! Preposterous! Insulting! Offensive! That's how I saw it.
God, was I dumbass.
I developed this attitude by learning my skills in a near total vacuum, other than documentation written by people on the internet back in the 90's. Not official company-published technical docs, mind you, but forum and BBS posts, mailing list discussions, and way too much IRC to be considered "healthy" by any stretch of the imagination.
Those who taught me did so in a way that was efficient and they did no wrong at all of course - this failure was entirely of my own making, from my own arrogance. But it's also true that had I been taught at the same time that "there are other ways in other languages that are totally valid; this is just for simplicity's sake" and then been shown, or better yet required to use other patterns in school/projects/etc., I might have been able to see the short-sightedness of my own arrogance sooner. Instead, it resulted in an antipattern that allowed me to become overconfident, arrogant, and more difficult to work with than I should've been.
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In case you're wondering, I can't remember what I read or where that came from so long ago. Sorry. Might have been C, C++, Java, DOS BASIC (non-GUI/non-Windows), Visual Basic (before .NET) or maybe even PHP 3.something, no idea - that was 20+ years ago. I was inexperienced, arrogant, and a fool; none of that was the author's fault whatsoever. We're all young and stupid at some point in life. I'm no longer young, but at least now I know I'm stupid! :-)