Loading system sprites

In RO 5.13 the system sprites get loaded in BootResources:!+Resource by the RMLoading of the modules in that directory, one for Window Tools, one for Paint, one for Draw and one, “WimpPool”, that puts the Sprites files in Resources:$.Resources.Wimp. Is there any good reason why this file should contain a mixture of such different stuff? Would it not make more sense to load all the filetype sprites separately? Especially since there are obvious considerations about augmenting the pool of such sprites and about prevention of some being overwritten, which are less likely to arise for other sorts of sprite. Maybe there are efficiency reasons for having a great soup of different sprites loaded at boot time? But it seems to me that some sort of modularization might be useful here.

The reason for the Wimp sprites stuff is allow the “ROM” sprite pool to contain a larger variety and higher colour depth sprites than would fit in the actual ROM. You’re right, it’s not something that should be done lightly, as you lose any sprites that were there in the old version of Resources:$.Resources.Wimp in the process. I wouldn’t like to vouch for it being at all safe to do it after the Desktop has started up, either. For applications, *IconSprites definitely remains the thing to use.

I was never convinced by the need for the others to be installed in ResourceFS. *ToolSprites could be used for the tools with no side effects, and for Draw and Paint, you can simply point Draw$Path and Paint$Path at the resources on disc.