problem with ProjectHelper.replaceProperties?

[David Jencks]

Hi!

While working on my own ant task, I discovered that
ProjectHelper.replaceProperties removes '$' while it is 
substituting for ${...}.  This broke my task so I changed the method to the
below.  ( my code replaces ${...}, but leaves $ followed by not-{ alone)

Is this behavior intentional or is it a bug?

If this is a bug I would appreciate some fix, either mine or another, being
checked in.  If this is not a bug, can someone suggest a way of escaping
the $ character?

Also, what is the appropriate procedure for contributing a new optional
task?

thanks
david jencks

    /** Replace ${NAME} with the property value
     */
    public static String replaceProperties(Project project, String value,
Hashtable keys )
        throws BuildException
    {
        // XXX use Map instead of proj, it's too heavy

        // XXX need to replace this code with something better.
        //How's this?
        //previous version did not correctly handle $ in value.
        StringBuffer sb=new StringBuffer();
        int copiedTo=0;
        // assert value!=nil
        int dollarPos;
        while( (dollarPos=value.indexOf( "$", copiedTo )) >= 0 ) {
            if (value.charAt( dollarPos + 1 ) == '{') {
                    //${ found, look for terminating }
                    int closeBracket = value.indexOf( '}', dollarPos + 1);
                    if (closeBracket < 0) {
                        throw new BuildException("Syntax error in prop: " +
                                             value + "--close } missing" );
                    }
                    String name=value.substring( dollarPos+2, closeBracket
);
                    if (keys.containsKey(name)) {
                        //name found, replace with value.
                        sb.append(value.substring(copiedTo, dollarPos));
                        sb.append(keys.get(name));
                    }
                    else {
                        //name not found, copy literally
                        sb.append(value.substring(copiedTo, closeBracket +
1));
                    }
                    copiedTo = closeBracket + 1;
            }
            else {
                //$<not {> found, treat like regular character
                sb.append(value.substring(copiedTo, dollarPos + 1));
                copiedTo = dollarPos + 1;
            }
        } //end while
                    
        if( copiedTo < value.length() ) sb.append( value.substring(
copiedTo ) );
        //      System.out.println("After replace: " + sb.toString());
        // System.out.println("Before replace: " + value);
        return sb.toString();
    }