Bootstrapper

Overview

The bootstrapper decides what order the engine starts up in — and nothing else. It does not contain startup logic itself; each step is an engine method living in its own system (registry, input, renderer, …). The sequence is declared in Bootstrap.xml, so reordering or inserting a startup step is an XML edit, not a code change. This replaces the old hardcoded A_BootstrapStage enum approach.

Architecture

graph TD
  XML[Bootstrap.xml] -->|Phase / Step| Steps[ordered step names]
  Reflect[scan assemblies for A_XSDActionDependency category=Bootstrap] --> Map[name → MethodInfo]
  Steps --> Run[RunPhase: invoke each step in XML order]
  Map --> Run

Step resolution

Bootstrapper.Load(xmlPath) does two things:

  1. Reflects over every loaded assembly and collects each method tagged [A_XSDActionDependency(name, "Bootstrap")] into a name → MethodInfo map.
  2. Parses Bootstrap.xml into phase name → ordered list of step (action) names.

RunPhase("Bootstrap") then walks the step list in declared order, looks each name up in the map, and invokes it. An unknown step name is logged and skipped (non-fatal).

Lifecycle / Flow

  1. Engine.Init() calls Bootstrapper.Load(Paths.BOOTSTRAP) — Paths.BOOTSTRAP resolves Bootstrap.xml through the XML-XSD / VFS layer (engine default unless an app overrides it).
  2. Bootstrapper.RunPhase("Bootstrap") invokes the steps.

The default step order is listed in Attributes & Conventions › Bootstrap step names.

Data / XML formats

<BootstrapSequence xmlns="http://arctisaurora/AuroraBootstrapTypes">
  <Phase Name="Bootstrap">
    <Step Action="EntityRegistry.ParseXML"/>
    <Step Action="InputHandler.LoadInputs"/>
    <!-- … -->
    <Step Action="Renderer.CreateSyncObjects"/>
  </Phase>
</BootstrapSequence>

BootstrapSequence → Phase → Step map to the [A_XSDType]-tagged classes Bootstrapper, BootstrapPhase, BootstrapStep, so the format is part of the generated XSD.

Invariants & gotchas

  • A Step’s Action string must match the [A_XSDActionDependency] Name exactly.
  • Order is whatever the XML declares — not reflection order (reflection order is undefined).
  • A missing/typo’d action is skipped with a console warning, not an exception — a step silently not running is the most likely failure mode.
  • Planned rework (see engine notes): dependency-based sequencing driven further by XSD/XML.

Key types

  • Bootstrapper (static) · BootstrapPhase · BootstrapStep