properties and parameters
Templates appear to be something new, though I don't think I like them (see below)
(1) --> ${xyz} (2) --> ${macroattr:xyz} (3) --> ${macrotemplate:xyz}
So for a definition like:
<property name="xyz" value="true"/>
Now ${xyz}" is true forevermore because properties are immutable<macrodef name="abc"> <attribute name="pqr"/> <sequential> <javac debug="${xyz}" ... />
This line ${xyz} should get replaced<javac debug="${macroattr:pqr}" ... />
<javac debug="${macrotemplate:xyz}" ... />
</sequential>
</macrodef>
I'm not sure how you get a second level of expansion, or if it is desireable
I'm not sure this makes sense (to me at least).... if it is part of an ant call, then the macrodef should be in the build file used in the antfile atribute... in which case your first javac might also come out with debug=false (assuming inheritall=false, and the property definition was before the macro definition) or debug="${xyz}" (unexpanded, and causing the build to fail because it wasn't defined yet, if the property isn't before the macro definition, as you have shown). If the task does property replacement at invocation time, then you still should getAfter this definition the macro that is actually expanded will look something like:
<attribute name="pqr"/> <sequential> <javac debug="true" ... /> <javac debug="${macroattr:pqr}" ... /> <javac debug="${xyz}" ... /> </sequential>
which will be further expanded in a call frangment, maybe inside an <ant> call:
<property name="xyz" value="false"/> <abc pqr="true"/> <abc pqr="false"/>
debug="false" for your first javac since the property won't have been expanded yet.
If macro definitions are available to sub builds, then your 3rd case might occur, but I don't think it would be good to allow macros to be called across build file boundaries. builds would be almost unintelligible without tracking down the macros from other files.
It would also bring up yet another scoping issue for 2 files that defined macros with the same name and then one called the other. Granted this might be an xml namespaces thing, but the more parts of ant that require namespaces the steeper the learning curve for new users.
To effectively finish executing the following ANT fragment:
<property name="xyz" value="false"/> <sequential> <javac debug="true" ... /> <javac debug="true" ... /> <javac debug="${xyz}" ... /> </sequential> <sequential> <javac debug="true" ... /> <javac debug="false" ... /> <javac debug="${xyz}" ... /> </sequential>
So, as long as we can acomplish something like this, and we do not add a bunch of new machinery in the process, I think it is a wonderful feature.
Jose Alberto
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