Why does a python module act like a singleton?

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This is the Python Language Reference’s description of how importing a module works:

(1) find a module, and initialize it if necessary; (2) define a name or names in the local namespace

(Emphasis added.) Here, initializing a module means executing its code. This execution is only performed if necessary, i.e. if the module was not previously imported in the current process. Since Python modules are first-class runtime objects, they effectively become singletons, initialized at the time of first import.

Note that this means that there’s no need for a get_state_dict_code function; just initialize state_code_dict at top-level:

state_code_dict = generate_state_code_dict()

For a more in-depth explanation, see this talk by Thomas Wouters, esp. the first part — around 04:20 — where he discusses the “everything is runtime” principle.

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