To Pd dev -
I've gone ahead and pushed 0.55-0test3 to github in hopes it will work OK. I think I've fixed the startup order problems, but two problems remain...
1. startup is noticeably slower than 0.54 on MacOS. I've been trying to track this down, and pushed a branch to git that should have improved the startup time but I don't see any improvement on my Mac. OTOH, when I compile Pd locally it starts up noticeably faster than either 'master' or 'startup-order' branches compiled in the online CI system. I'm baffled but will keep trying to figure this out.
Second, and more serious, on Mac Pd now hangs if you save an audio device and then restart Pd without the saved audio device connected. This might be generally true when starting Pd with "no audio device" - I haven't managed to look more closely at this. Once you switch Pd to an existing audio device it un-hangs.
Meanwhile I'm working on a production this week so will have limited time to look at these til next weekend.
cheers
Miller