Your guess is exactly right: namely, it really is a canonical way to solve your mentioned problem. You could add some error-checking using

eval {
  # your mentioned "require" and "import" statements go here
}
if ($@) {
  # something smells fishy here, or my name is Stinky Lulu
}
[download]

which is a special case of try-block.

Courage, the Cowardly Dog.