Add possibility to create autoload from script (without using the project settings)

[Chaosus]

Describe the project you are working on

Describe the problem or limitation you are having in your project

This is not a limitation - just an impovement.

Describe the feature / enhancement and how it helps to overcome the problem or limitation

The idea is to allow user creating autoload from script rather than from project setting (for the sake of comfortability and uniformity).

Describe how your proposal will work, with code, pseudo-code, mock-ups, and/or diagrams

The following code would automatically make autoload Global for the script:

global
extends Node
class_name Global

class_name is mandatory for such scripts to allow use it in other scripts (but may be omitted if it's self-contained).

If this enhancement will not be used often, can it be worked around with a few lines of script?

No

Is there a reason why this should be core and not an add-on in the asset library?

It's a core GDScript change

[SilencedPerson]

I would use keyword autoload or singleton.

[mieldepoche]

See also #4993.

• you don't know in what order they are added anymore, so problems may arise if one singleton depends on another in its _ready
• I would forbid using class_name for this since its not the same thing. Also autoloaded scenes/scripts are not singleton since you can manually instantiate them however you want, so I'd use autoload instead of singleton:

extends Node
autoload Global

Also while this has the benefit of translating naturally from one project to another without further setup, I'm curious how often one would have to add a singleton for it to become that tedious.
I you really have that many scripts you can make an addon that adds every script in a directory as a singleton on startup.

[SilencedPerson]

Actually, how would this interact with scripts that extend Resource?

[mieldepoche]

Actually, how would this interact with scripts that extend Resource?

I personally see no reason for this to make sense currently, so it would throw an error.

[TheDuriel]

I don't see how this can be useful without being able to concisely name and order your autoloads. Plus, to enable/disable these kinds of autoloads you'd have to modify the script file directly and add/remove the keyword.

The most likely scenario here I can see is, the user losing track of how and where autoloads are coming from and how they interact.

Re naming: Autoloads are not Singletons, though they share qualities. Resources are Singletons.

[Chaosus]

Yeah, seems like a not good idea…