I don't understand when you say "But updating all the scripts that use them might be."
The alias objects will be used in scripts. If you change the alias you also need to update the references to it in your script don't you?
And if you have a lot of scripts, that can be awkward. It is just a find and replace exercise usually, but with a lot of scripts that can still be time consuming.
I know what you mean about changes causing you re-work. I've been there myself. But by pre-mapping objects, I do find it's a lot faster. Especially when run on VM's running TestExecute which tend to be a lot lower powered than my development machine. But as long as the alias file contains ONLY the bare minimum, I also find that 90%+ of structural changes tend to be in the invisible container layers, which are not in the alias object references. Hence why I say fix the name map and the alias looks after itself.
And I've seen people start mapping way before it's appropriate to do so plenty of times. So I thought I'd ask the question on stability. :)
Using helper/search functions is an interesting approach. And I do make use of them myself. But in conjunction with a name map/alias file usually. Best of both worlds and all that. :) Name map on it's own would be horrible, and I suspect I would never use it. But the alias layer between the map file and your scripts is what makes it work for me.
If you use helper/search functions globally, do you not sometimes find you're in a position where you have to find and update multiple calls to it if the wrong thing changes? Leaving you in a similar position to name map/alias updates?
