James Duncan Davidson wrote: > > I'd like to throw my two cents in about the language issue, if I may. I > > agree that you don't want Ant to become a general purpose programming > > language or anywhere near as complex and impenetrable as make (see > > footnote). However, I think it is also important not to be overly > > dogmatic about keeping all programming functionality out of Ant. > > I want to clarify that I'm not dogmatic about keeping functionality out of > Ant, I'm dogmatic about keeping it out of the build file itself. Note that > dynamic taskdef'ing allows any functionality implemented as Java class files > to be plugged in. One of the things that I'd like to figure out how to do is > make this pick up of non core taskdefs easier to do. Also note that I have > no problem with calling out to scripts. And maybe the taskdef that calls out > to a script exposes the project properties list somehow which would have > side effects. >
I suggested a while ago to have the concept of a <tasklib name="..." classpath="..."> which allows developers to provide their own libraries of <tasks> like <xslt> or others. Then when declaring a task, one may specify the name of the tasklib it comes from: <taskdef name="..." classname=... tasklib=name> or we could have <tasklib> declare these tasks directly in some form of descriptor. Something like taglibs for JSP. That would allow people write anything they want and having it separate from the ANT distribution. > > But the XML itself shouldn't be programmtic. > I can live with that, I think. > > I don't want to go around for another few weeks round of discorse on what it > means to say that or nit pick on the exact definition of each and every > word. Instead, I'm pulling together a requirements document for Ant.NG. I'll > post it as soon as it's in a state to be posted. I had promised it by the > time I got back to California from ApacheCON -- and I just might hit that as > I played hookey in Chicago and am getting back into the bay area on Tuesday > eve. > > .duncan -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Jose Alberto Fernandez 500 Oracle Parkway, M/S 9op4 Development Manager Redwood Shores, CA 94065 ORACLE Corp. Phone: (650) 506-8830 Java Products Group Fax: (650) 506-7303 Languages & Obj-Relational Tech Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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