Ctools_include is a great way to include files as you wish as it's much easier to use as module_load_include, because it has as $dir parameter.
Just a random example
ctools_include($filename = 'theme', $module = 'views', $dir = 'theme')
module_load_include('inc', 'views', 'theme/theme')
It seems to make sense though to have $module and $filename switched.
Comments
Comment #2
dawehnerGiven how many classes we have I doubt this is still useful.
@dawehner Feel free to reopen this issue, if you disagree with @dawehner