About MC for managing the image

[Andreas Raab]

Avi Bryant wrote:
> Let's say I have two packages, A and B.  I have a new configuration  in 
> which these two packages have exchanged methods: one method from A  has 
> moved to B, and one method from B has moved to A.  I try to load  that 
> configuration.  Either load order is equivalent, but let's say  that 
> we've specified that the order is A, B.

Ah, yes. *That* problem ;-) I've seen it often enough, usually in the 
form of classes being moved between packages. And it's a pain to deal 
with, I agree.

> Both of these cases are solved by simply asking MC to load or merge  the 
> two packages together, rather than asking it to load them  
> sequentially.  The load strategy it uses is very simple: a superclass  
> always needs to be loaded before its subclasses, and a class always  
> needs to be loaded before its methods.  Additions are always done  
> before removals, and removals are done with the inverse rules (first  
> remove methods, then classes, then superclasses).

Ah, interesting. I had no idea. But yes, that makes a lot of sense.

> What you don't get to do in that case is specify anything about the  
> load order yourself.  I think the cases where specifying this is  
> necessary are going to be very rare, but certainly they will happen.   

I agree. I think the ratio for configs per package versions is somewhere 
between 1:10 and 1:20 in Tweak.

Cheers,
   - Andreas