lazy loading of modules

perl5ever has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Is there a CPAN module which implements lazy compilation of modules via the following idea:

1. unshifts a sub ref/object to @INC which when use X is encountered will install an AUTOLOAD stub for package X.

2. The AUTOLOAD stub will 1) remove itself from package X and 2) perform a do on the real path of the module and 3) goto &$AUTOLOAD.

The main purpose would be to avoid loading/compiling a module until when one of its subroutines was actually called. It wouldn't work for all modules (such as meta-programming modules or ones that exported symbols), but it could work for fairly "conventional" modules.

Does anything like that currently exist?

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Re: lazy loading of modules by Corion (Patriarch) on Jan 31, 2010 at 21:37 UTC
See AutoSplit and AutoLoader, which don't even load the whole module at once. Also, SelfLoader.	[reply]
Re: lazy loading of modules by shmem (Chancellor) on Jan 31, 2010 at 23:04 UTC
The main purpose would be to avoid loading/compiling a module until when one of its subroutines was actually called. Not quite in the way you've outlined, but the (core) module autouse does that: NAME autouse - postpone load of modules until a function is used	[reply]
Re: lazy loading of modules by Khen1950fx (Canon) on Jan 31, 2010 at 22:11 UTC
In addition to AutoLoader, take a look at AutoReloader by shmem.	[reply]