Feature Discussion: autoload pyscript files in sub-directories

[craigbarratt]

There have been multiple requests on the forum to support loading of script files in subdirectories (other the special directories apps and modules). That helps users organize their script files, rather everything being in flat top-level directory.

I'm summarizing my reply to one of these requests to get feedback before implementing it.

Questions:

• should pyscript automatically load scripts recursively in all other directories?
• ...or should we reserve a name like local, and everything below just that directory is recursively auto loaded?
• should the directories that are recursively autoloaded be configurable?

My leaning would be to have one directory, eg, local, which has recursively autoloading, and not make its name configurable. My reasoning is that we might add other top-level directories that support special behavior, so keeping the recursive loading to one directory for now would avoid future name collisions. For config, I prefer to keep things as simple as possible, but we could always make it configurable later (eg, a list of directories to recursively autoload, and the default is local).

Another feature could be that script file names starting with # are not autoloaded. So you can rename files to disable them (sort of like a comment in the file name). That's easier than moving them to some other directory (and then forgetting where you put it), or commenting out the entire contents of the file. Is that useful or too confusing?

[dlashua]

EDIT: I misread autoloading as autoREloading. Adjusting my comments accordingly.

I like the idea of recursive autoloading. I am currently grouping scripts into files by ROOM, with other "rooms" like "hvac". The single top-level directory is not out-of-hand yet, but it could get that way.

Using "#" at the beginning of a file name (and directory?) is a really clever idea. In other frameworks where I want to not-autoload something temporarily, I have to move it to another directory and, like you said, it's annoying.

If the top level 'pyscript/' directory is autoloaded, there's no need to configure it at all. Having only one subdirectory that gets autoloaded works fine too, and, since it's recursive, I don't see any reason to make it configurable. However, I'm not sold on the name 'local'. 'scripts' or 'autoload' might make more sense. However, if something isn't "autoload", then there's really no way in pyscript to load it, auto or otherwise (outside of other special case directories like apps and modules). So I think maybe "scripts" fits better as, that is where you put your scripts (as opposed to apps and modules and whatever else gets added in the future).

[craigbarratt]

Thanks for the comments. To summarize:

• scripts is a good suggestion - let's go with that
• #will work on files and subdirectories
• "commenting" a file or directory will cause it to be unloaded on the next reload

When I implement #74, on linux hosts the unloading/reloading will be immediate whenever a script file is created/modified/renamed (no need for the reload service call).

[dlashua]

This sounds great!