I just checked in a "blank" template for controls development into /samples/controls-blank (it lives in the same place in the distro). The idea is that users can clone this template and it has a build.xml & dir structure that will compile controls and archive them into a control jar.
Steve, it would be great if your tutorials/docs reference this - it should save you time as well. It's pretty straight forward - there's a build and a clean target, and they do what you'd expect :-). Let me know if there are any questions.
