name is related to contentobject.name path to contentobject_tree.path_identification_string
I would expect that the result would highly differ, if you would get all children by mainnode only and if children would have multiple nodes per contect. Other then that it is more or less the same.
This should be reported as a bug, default sorting for most classes should be published descending, and classes like frontpage should use priority descending imho..
Can somebody please try and confirm (or deny) this with a new (unaltered) 3.9.2 installation? I'll file a bug report then.
@Björn: Yes, i thought of something like that, too. But -with standard templates- it does not make sense to me at all. Well... sorting by Class identifier or name does not make (much) sense to me either ;)
This problem is in eZ Publish for sometime. Default sorting should be as AR suggested, for most classes based on publication date. Sorting by content class ID is handy in admin interface where on subtree/folder contains lots of objects different classes.
Default sorting should be changed. Feel free to fill up bug report about it.
Reg. to "article (main page)", this class uses sorting by "priority" and editor need to take care about it. As front end editing interface is limited this must be set in admin interface. Of course ideally would be have that sorting pre-configured by default.