FOSS gamedev and creative worlds

In minetest 0.4.7 dependencies will be specified with a "?" to make them optional. It also mentions an obsolete "optdepends.txt". Neither seems to work with stable (0.4.6).

How do you make mods interoperate without knowing the loading order?

Specifically, dplus and stoneage seem to conflict with respect to torch crafting.

Sometimes it helps to go by alphabetical order - that is, a mod whose name starts with an "a" will most likely be loaded before a mod which begins with a "b" and so on. This does not seem to apply to modpacks. If this problem can be solved in 0.4.7, then by all means let's move on to 0.4.7 as soon as possible!