Issue with using pyimport in Julia 1.1.0 - julia

Question

I made a module with an if condition on the number of cores.
module mymodule
import Pkg
import PyCall
using Distributed
if nworkers() > 1
#everywhere using Pkg
#everywhere Pkg.activate(".")
#everywhere Pkg.instantiate()
#everywhere using PyCall
#everywhere #pyimport scipy.signal as ss
function parallel()
....
end
else
using Pkg
Pkg.activate(".")
Pkg.instantiate()
using PyCall
#pyimport scipy.signal as ss
function serial()
....
end
end
end #mymodule
Code throws the following error on execution
ERROR: LoadError: LoadError: UndefVarError: #pyimport not defined
Stacktrace:
[1] top-level scope
[2] include at ./boot.jl:326 [inlined]
[3] include_relative(::Module, ::String) at ./loading.jl:1038
[4] include(::Module, ::String) at ./sysimg.jl:29
[5] include(::String) at ./client.jl:403
[6] top-level scope at none:0
in expression starting at /storage/work/s/mymodule.jl:81
in expression starting at /storage/work/s/mymodule.jl:30
where line 81 is the line in else condition corresponding to #pyimport scipy.signal as ss and line 30 corresponds to if nworkers() > 1.
Before this problem, the code had an issue with the line #everywhere #pyimport scipy.signal as ss but that disappeared by using import PyCall; bizarrely though, it didn't solve the former problem.
Has anyone experienced a similar issue or aware of such issues?

Answer 1

You need to use pyimport function instead. Macro definition (comes from your using) and usage of that macro in the same block does not work due to the parsing/evaluation order.
Simply change the code
#pyimport scipy.signal as ss
to
ss = pyimport("scipy.signal")
You can also divide the blocks into two, first for the definitions and the second for usage. However, I would not do that as #pyimport macro is already deprecated.