On Sun, 1 Oct 2000, Diane Holt wrote: > Would it be too difficult/weird/impossible to have if/unless available at > the task level instead of only at the target level? Would you be able to > do it in Task.java and have it be available to all the tasks that do > "extends Task" (or MatchingTask), rather than having to go thru and change > each task's .java file? I've been "pseudo-coding" a large target, and > including if/unless in the tasks that comprise it (just as a reminder for > now), but I'm looking at it, and it'd sure make for a much more compact > (and I think easier to follow) build-file if it was actually workable that > way, instead of having to have a separate target for each task that has a > conditional execution.
I don't think it makes sense conceptually. Targets are units of work in building a dependancy system. Each unit has many tasks but how can you tell which tasks are allowable to be elided via if/unless and which aren't ? Obviously a mkdir has to occur before a copy but this again puts the complexity in hands of ant user rather than developer which is a bad thing IMHO. Similar reasoning why for/while/if/then constructs are not wanted in core task. Cheers, Pete *--------------------------------------------------* | Latrobe University, | Does the name 'Pavlov' | | Bundoora, Australia | ring a bell ? | *--------------------------------------------------*
