Extending ant from within ant

[Patrick Beard]

I'm interested in a couple of ideas that are somewhat along the lines 
of what XSLT (XSL Transformations) is supposed to support. I'd like 
to be able to define tasks in XML that correspond to combinations of 
other tasks. For example, to build a tool for JShell, I have the 
following generic pattern:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!-- builds foo.jxe -->
<project name="wrap" default = "build" basedir = ".">
	<property name = "tool" value = "foo" />
	<property name = "classes" value = "${tool}.classes" />
	<property
		name = "jlink"
		value = "jlink ${org.jxe.Tools}/${tool}.jxe 
${tool}.properties ${classes}" />

        <target name = "classes">
                <mkdir dir = "${classes}" />
                <javac
                        srcdir = "."
                        destdir = "${classes}" />
        </target>
        <target name = "build" depends = "classes">
                <exec command = "echo ${jlink}" />
                <exec command = "${jlink}" />
        </target>
        <target name = "clean">
                <deltree dir = "${classes}" />
        </target>
</project>
What I'd really like to do is to define a task, say "buildtool" that 
would be composed of sub-tasks, mkdir, javac, and jlink. Of course, 
I'd want to define a jlink subtask in terms of exec, as I've done 
above. Is this possible with ant currently?

Another idea I'd like to explore is using Rhino JavaScript (big 
surprise) to provide scripting within a build.xml file. We could then 
define additional tasks dynamically in terms of scripts. Much of the 
currently built-in tasks could be recast in terms of scripts, where 
appropriate.

- Patrick
--
// Patrick C. Beard
// Java Runtime Enthusiast -- "Will invoke interfaces for food."
// mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]