Just a quick guess:  the list is probably stored as a Map that's implemented as a HashMap, suitable for fast random retrieval by key value of large lists, but ordered essentially randomly.
 
You'd want it to be a SortedMap (of which I think TreeMap is the only implementation in java.util) for human-friendly visual selection of values, particularly if the list had more than maybe a dozen or so entries.  I don't know whether that choice is made in the core code or in a template or class sheet (XWiki.ClassSheet), or whether you could re-order it there.  If not, you might have to go the custom object class route (for which I've seen support in the database, but not in any of the forms) or, at last resort, actually change the core code.

brain[sic]

 


From: Esbach, Brandon [mailto:Esbachb@tycoelectronics.com]
Sent: Wednesday, April 11, 2007 4:07 AM
To: xwiki-users@objectweb.org
Subject: [xwiki-users] Order of classes?

Hi all,

When viewing a list of classes (both in the class editor and when attaching a class manually to a document via class list dropdown) the order of classes seems a bit random. Is there any way to select the sort order?

The userlist property type also seems to be a bit random (in my case, selecting value or id makes no difference).