I think that roles add clarity to description of datatypes or components. I liked the syntax of the antlib descriptor proposed by Jose Alberto, which in my example with shapes would have been : <antlib version="1.5" > <task name="computearea" class="org.apache.demo.ComputeAreaTask"/> <task name="computeperimeter" class="org.apache.demo.ComputePerimeterTask"/> <role name="shape" class="org.apache.demo.ShapeInterface"/> ... <shape name="circle" class="org.apache.demo.Circle"/> <shape name="square" class="org.apache.demo.Square"/> ... </antlib> Reading this, and knowing that computearea and computeperimeter accept shapes as nested element, a build file writer would know that <circle/> and <square/> can be nested inside <computearea/> and <computeperimeter/>. This descriptor also says that ShapeInterface should have a special meaning for ant, which for instance Serializable, Cloneable, ... do not necessarily have.
However, if , as it sounds, I am the only committer who expresses support for roles, I will give up on that subject. Antoine ----- Original Message ----- From: "Costin Manolache" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, May 22, 2003 7:02 AM Subject: Re: antlib > Conor MacNeill wrote: > > > On Thu, 22 May 2003 01:02 am, Jose Alberto Fernandez wrote: > >> Whatever we adopt, it definetly need to be written from scratch. :-) > >> > > > > Cool. All I had to go on was the code. If we agree that roles are based on > > the interface implemented by the nested element, that is good. It was my > > main concern. I still don't really see the need for roles but that's just > > me :-) Go for it. > > > I don't think it's just you, I'm on the same side. > > Probably a small poll on the remaining issues would help clarify where the > majority stands. I think most people are willing to accept a range of > solutions, and a lot is a matter of taste and prefference. > > So far I've heard the strong opinion of Jose on roles - and I'm not sure > on the other's opinions. There are 2 negative opinions so far. If we decide > to add roles, I would like to be clear where other committers stand. > > Costin > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >
