Ferreteria/v0.5/classloader

The ClassLoader handles loading of all other classes in Ferreteria. It is (of necessity) written so it can be used without any other part of Ferreteria.

Class Structure

• the csLoader class is just to encapsulate the top-level module/class registry and autoloading
• a caLibrary object:
  • is a named set of Modules which are only loaded by explicit request from the application
  • has a BasePath, to which all Module files are relative; defaults to csLoader's BasePath
  • invokes a specific index file which loads the rest of the Library via its Module object
    • ...which may itself invoke other index files via caModule->IncludeIndex()
    • ...the format of which is defined by cModule descendants
  • The index file is only processed when its Library is requested
• a caModule object:
  • contains zero or more registered classes
  • maps to a single directly-executable code file

Process

• When an application requests a Library (via csLoader::LoadLibrary()), the master index for that Library is executed (which may load other index files) -- but the code files are not loaded/executed yet.
• When a class-autoload request comes in to csLoader::_LoadClass(), csLoader checks the class list (which it maintains) to see which code-file needs to finally be loaded, and loads/executes it.