"adrian(a)jboss.org" wrote : But I think we are talking about different things, at least from | my understanding of your original post. | | There is a need to merge/hide/override at runtime and this | depends upon the type of metadata (it also includes having the | ability to query where the data came from). | Argreed, but runtime usage vs asking where runtime T.x actually came from seem like two different uses of the composite metadata for the type T. One way to get the runtime view would be to collapse the levels into an instance T. Another would be a T facade over delegating accessors/iterators that do the right thing for each property x of T. "adrian(a)jboss.org" wrote : | The full normalized view should be maintained elsewhere. | I'm not following what you mean by normalized view? "adrian(a)jboss.org" wrote : | When I talk about merging I'm talking about giving the runtime view, | e.g. getting all the resource-refs for a bean (from all levels). | Yes, that is what I would consider as merging as well. View the original post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=viewtopic&p=3978226#... Reply to the post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=posting&mode=reply&a...