Jonathan - 

> people have difficulty managing code and staying current. 

I haven't heard of (or experienced) difficulties with that from anyone
using Monticello. On the contrary, Monticello makes it extremely easy
to do that.

The discussion is about managing objects other than code and staying
current. The image can contain sound objects, graphic object -
essentially acting like a very friendly database - and the issue is
about keeping the code in that image current while preserving the
non-code part of it. This discussion made it clear that some of the
more active people now don't use the image that way anymore, and there
is no reason why you should keep your data in the image if you are
primarily interested in code and staying current.

Hope this clarifies, 
Michal