ClassLoader snippet suggestion does not work

I was much happier with this line:
<pre>
require_once drupal_get_path('module', 'civicrm') . '/../CRM/Core/ClassLoader.php';
</pre>

The issue is that during installation, module enable, and upgrade, civicrm.settings.php gets loaded when civicrm has not been initialized, and is therefore not in the include path.