mlp/src/autoloader.py

Overview:

This Python script defines a mechanism for automatic module loading, often referred to as an autoloader. The purpose of this mechanism is to dynamically load and import all Python modules from a specified base package at runtime. This can be particularly useful in large projects to ensure all necessary modules are loaded without needing explicit import statements for each one.

MetaAutoloader (metaclass):

Description: implements the Singleton design pattern at the class level. This ensures that any instance of a class that uses MetaAutoloader as its metaclass will be a singleton, meaning that only one instance of such a class can exist.

Attributes:

• _instances: A class-level dictionary holding references to instances of classes that use this metaclass, ensuring that only one instance per class is created.

Methods:

• __call__: Overrides the default __call__ to check if an instance of the class already exists in the _instances dictionary before creating a new one, ensuring the singleton behavior.

Autoloader (class):

Description: provides functionality to automatically find and import all Python modules from a given base package directory. This class is particularly useful for large-scale projects to automate module loading. Defined with MetaAutoloader as its metaclass.

Attributes:

• base_package: A string representing the base package from which modules will be auto-loaded.

Methods:

• __init__(self, base_package): constructor that initializes the Autoloader instance with the specified base package.
• autoload(self): scans through the base_package directory, and all its subdirectories, for Python files (excluding __init__.py) and attempts to import them as modules.
• _import_module(self, module_name): a helper method used by autoload() to import a module if it hasn’t already been imported. This method takes the fully qualified name of the module as its argument.