I've no right to vote, but a thought +1 to this idea
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Berin Loritsch [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
>Sent: Friday, September 07, 2001 4:27 AM
>To: Avalon Development; [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Subject: Standardizing build.xml files
>
>
>I proposed this on the general lists, and got a couple +1s
>>from the folks there. Please let me know if this makes sense
>for us. This proposal is a minimum set of targets and
>conventions for build.xml files. This allows a familiar
>environment for all projects (if adopted).
>
>-------------------------------------------------------------
>
>I propose that we all use a standard target convention for
>all Ant based projects. This is something that helps adopters
>of GNU software all over. A person who has never seen GNOME
>or GCC knows they can compile it by running "./configure"
>and "make all check install". These conventions make it
>easier for the newbie to come up to a fresh project and
>get it to compile.
>
>One of the reasons I have come up with the proposal is that
>every project has its own conventions. I have been involved
>in at least seven Apache projects in some capacity or another
>and have contributed code to four of them. They each have
>different conventions. One of the ways I work is building
>the project completely fresh before testing--I uncover more
>bugs that way. I would very much like to run "./build clean all"
>but most projects have a different target name for the default
>build target. Already most projects use the following target
>names: "clean", "docs", "dist", and "javadocs". Most "clean"
>targets leave some artifacts behind, and only a couple projects
>have the concept of "distclean".
>
>I propose we borrow a number of conventions from the GNU
>"make" utility manual
>(http://www.gnu.org/manual/make-3.79.1/html_chapter/make_14.html).
>
>If a program can be installed, then a build file must
>use these properties (which can be overridden by a user's
>.antrc file). The properties and default values follow:
>
>* install.dir=.
>* install.bin.dir=${install.dir}/bin
>* install.lib.dir=${install.dir}/lib
>* install.data.dir=${install.dir}/conf
>* install.doc.dir=${install.dir}/docs
>
>By using these properties, Ant is able to customize how the
>program is installed and filter the scripts to point to the
>proper jars, etc.
>
>The standard targets I propose we all adopt are similar to
>the Make utility conventions ('all' is the default target):
>
>'all'
> Compiles the program with debugging enabled by default.
> This target is not required to build documentation. Standard
> compilation properties and defaults are:
> * build.debug=on
> * build.optimize=off
>'install'
> This target ensures that everything is built, including
> documentation. It then copies the files in the corresponding
> directories already mentioned above. All jars should be
> considered libraries, and scripts should be provided to run
> them. If installation is not provided by a project, the
> build script should display a message to that effect. Optionally,
> {build.optimize} could be set to "on" for this target.
>'uninstall'
> This target removes all the project files from the afformentioned
> directories. IMPORTANT: The uninstall script should NOT
> assume that the {install.[*].dir} directories are direct decendants
> of the {install.dir} directory. If installation is not provided
> by the project, the build script should display a message to
> that effect.
>'clean'
> This target deletes all files that are generated by the build
> process--but does not delete files used to configure the build
> process.
>'distclean'
> This deletes all files that are left from clean and returns the
> project to its distributed state.
>'docs'
> This generates all documentation for a project. This includes
> user docs and javadocs.
>'javadocs'
> This simply generates the javadocs for the project.
>'printerdocs'
> This generates a printer friendly version of the documentation.
> Most projects dynamically build their documentation from XML
> anyway. They should provide a nice and simple stylesheet that
> avoids all the HTML tables embedded in tables approach most
> site docs use.
>'dist'
> This target should be used for generating all the artifacts used
> for a distribution. That means the tar ball and zip file used to
> distribute projects, and any dynamically generated announcement
> files.
>'check'
> This target is used to compile and execute any unit tests that
> are built into the project.
>
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