At 07:10 22/11/00 -0800, you wrote: >Interesting info. In all seriousness (I'm not being smug), why do you think >"they" think that > > More Elements -> Harder >but > More Attributes -> Easier > >? Is is a visual layout issue (clumping related information close >together), or is it the difficulty of understanding hierarchical data? As a >non-non-technical person, I actually find the nested elements approach much >easier to read. But as has been pointed out here, there has been a goal >stated at some point that Ant should be accessible to non-techies as well >as techies.
I think it is the level of abstraction. The more abstract/generic the tasks become the more they tend to have sub-elements. The more abstract the task is then the more difficult it is to understand. The main thing they complained about was directory copying. ie Compare <copydir src"foo" dest="bar" /> and <copy todir="bar"> <fileset dir="foo" /> </copy> The 1st one is much more readable but less "extendable". With second you can do all sorts of fancy fileset operations and maybe do file mapping in future (or now ???). In this case I actually prefer the first case but in most cases I prefer the deeper elements approach. Anyways something to think about ;) Cheers, Pete *------------------------------------------------------* | Despite your efforts to be a romantic hero, you will | | gradually evolve into a postmodern plot device. | *------------------------------------------------------*
