This chapter describes how to load another edition of a component already loaded in your image. Loading components from a library describes how to find and load new components from the library.

The types of component editions or versions that you can load include the following:

Loading component editions from a library is more efficient than filing in code, which is the typical process for sharing Smalltalk code. The library contains all compiled code generated by your team.

Each load is atomic. This means that either the entire load succeeds, or the entire load fails. Non-atomic loads can break in the middle and load only parts of components, resulting in an inconsistent image. When this happens, you usually have to throw away the image, attempt to fix the error in the load, and start over again. Because loads in VA Smalltalk are atomic, there is less chance of your image becoming inconsistent.