alright, i have a couple of Aloft's modules loading at runtime, Prat-style (encapsulated in functions).
there are some Aloft data lifecycle issues i have had to work through (but that was to be expected), and i don't have enough functionality in the aggregate loading this way yet to try to quantify how much memory is used before/after loading, but it is functioning.
Ace2 did not end up imposing any restrictions.
thanks so much to everyone who contributed here for all your help, i greatly appreciate it. i would have just been groping in the dark otherwise. if anyone thinks of anything else, feel free to chip in... i am sure i am doing any number of things wrong/ineffectively
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