From: David Masover <ninja@...>
Date: 2009-11-24T14:34:46+09:00
Subject: [ANN] autoloader, version 0.0.2

A couple of handy features to enhance Kernel#autoload.

Changes since 0.0.1: minor tweaks to the gem, and migrated to gemcutter.

Question: How do I add a choice of dependencies? Right now, I can use either 
extlib or activesupport for inflections.

Also: This is my first ever ruby-talk announcement. Someone please tell me if 
I am Doing It Wrong.


Pasted from the README:


Features
========

 * Fire Kernel#autoload at an entire directory
 * Fire it again at a subdirectory, for namespace'd models


Motivation/Examples
===================

I was using Ramaze as a web framework, and discovered that the standard Ramaze 
way of loading a directory of files is to slurp them all (with 'acquire'). I 
decided I'd rather use autoload, and not load things I'm not using. But I 
wasn't really looking forward to this:

autoload :User, 'model/user'
autoload :Clan, 'model/clan'
autoload :Item, 'model/item'

...ad nauseum. So, the first feature is a shallow, directory-based autoload:

AutoLoader << 'model'

Of course, being a pedant, I like to namespace my models. I don't want to 
slurp the entire directory tree. Instead, you can do this:

class User < MyFavoriteORM::Model
  include AutoLoader
  ...
end

Now, all AutoLoaded paths will be searched for a subdirectory called 'user', 
and all files within will be autoloaded. Just as if you'd done:

User.autoload :Anonymous, 'model/user/anonymous'
User.autoload :Registered, 'model/user/registered'

Of course, there's no requirement that you have a base class, or anything of 
the sort. If you just want a namespace, you can always do:

module MyNamespace; include AutoLoader; end

And you're done.


Compatibility
=============

Currently, Merb's extlib and Rails' activesupport are supported. It should be 
trivial to interface with other libraries.