python - A clean way to organize and load files with subclasses

Question

I have a parent class that provides abstract functions for manipulating hardware, and a directory full of classes that subclass this parent class, and provide hardware-specific implementation (e.g. x86 functions, ARM functions...). I am looking for a Pythonic way to import the files in the directory, and instantiate them.

At the moment the parent class is in the top level directory, and the files with the child classes in a subdirectory. This can be changed, for style or ease of implementation.

Is it preferable to load all the hardware-specific classes in the subdirectory by defining a list of them in a configuration file, and iterating over that to import them? Or would it be better (more Pythonic) to do it automatically with importlib? Or does it not matter?

Answer 1

The basic idea of dividing the sub classes int different files and importing only what you need is very pythonic. Consider using a __init__.py file in your subclasses' folder with an import SubClass1, SubClass2, SubClass3, ...-command in it. Then you can just say in the main.py:

import folderOfSubClasses

Then the __init__.py file will be executed and you have the expected result.

I hope I could help you!