The language was trying to make writing antlibs easier you really only have one basic declaration which defines the elements available to you:
<role name="X" classname="x.y.Z" adaptor="p.q.R"/>
every declaration like this, implicitly makes available a new element tag:
<X name="Xname" classname="Xa.Xb.XC"/>
We don't really need to get hung up on the syntax of a descriptor at this stage. Let's get something working in HEAD and work with it. XDoclet can be used to generate these descriptors anyway, and it likely be considered the best practice way to do it anyway.
That's it. The DTD is dynamic just like the DTD of ANT is dynamic.
This is where I differ. I like what I've heard so far, but I really don't like the total looseness of Ant build files, and I don't think we should propagate that same scheme. I understand how it evolved and that ease of use was one of the primary factors for Ant's looseness, not to mention that it was around before namespaces were really solidified.
We don't need these descriptors to have dynamic element names, do we?
Again, lets not get hung up on the descriptor syntax. Working implementation first - then we can debate the details. We can make it the defining goal for an Ant 1.6 release when all the fiddly details have been ironed out! :)
Erik
