I've defined a function make-python-ide which is attached to the
python-mode hook. Among other things, it calls (pymacs-load "ropemacs"
"rope-").

When I visit my first .py file, ropemacs and its functions are loaded,
but key-bindings don't work, and ropemacs-mode is NOT turned on.

Both problems are fixed when I visit my second file. Why is this? I
don't want to put (pymacs-load "ropemacs" "rope-") outside of this
function since it takes a while to execute and I only want ropemacs
for python files.

A related question, what exactly does the ropemacs-enable-autoimport
variable do? I've checked the documentation and it isn't clear what is
being autoimported.

Thanks,
Dan

It loads ropemacs using pymacs; it should be executed only once
when emacs comes up.  What you really need is ropemacs-mode,
which turns on ropemacs minor mode; it can be called from
a python-mode hook.

When autoimports are enabled, among completion proposals global names
from other modules are also included; if you select them, a
"from x import name" statement is added to your file.

        Ali

I have something like the following to address this issue.
I guess you can get the idea.

(defvar my-ropemacs-loaded nil)
(defun my-ropemacs-setup ()
  (unless my-ropemacs-loaded
    (setq my-ropemacs-loaded t)
    (require 'pymacs)
    (pymacs-load "ropemacs" "rope-")

    ;; other settings here...

    ;; The hook function (`ropemacs-mode') to enable ropemacs-mode is
    ;; just hooked, so it won't be called this time.
    ;; That's why I'm calling this manually here:
    (ropemacs-mode t)))

(add-hook 'python-mode-hook 'my-ropemacs-setup)

---
Takafumi