The Merlin platform is the Reference Implementation of the Avalon Component
and Deployment contract. This specification is presented in terms of the
component specification (covering meta-info, container/component interaction,
lifecycle, lifestyle, etc.) and deployment specification (component and
container directives, classloaders, composition management etc.). In both
cases the specifications dealing with multiple underlying sub-systems -
including the Avalon Meta, Composition, and Activation packages.