stevel 2003/10/23 21:54:39
Modified: . Tag: ANT_16_BRANCH welcome.html
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updated
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1.2.2.7 +42 -18 ant/welcome.html
Index: welcome.html
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RCS file: /home/cvs/ant/welcome.html,v
retrieving revision 1.2.2.6
retrieving revision 1.2.2.7
diff -u -r1.2.2.6 -r1.2.2.7
--- welcome.html 2 Oct 2003 07:45:08 -0000 1.2.2.6
+++ welcome.html 24 Oct 2003 04:54:39 -0000 1.2.2.7
@@ -78,7 +78,7 @@
builds. Its sad, but there are lots of little minor faults with Ant
that we don't dare fix because, well, things might break. For
example, why don't if= and unless= clauses also support
-if="${property}" clauses? Alternatively, why isn't it an
+<code>if="${property}"</code> clauses? Alternatively, why isn't it an
error to use a property that isn't defined. Everyone that has ever
seen directories called ${build.dir} popping up the source tree will
understand why that behaviour is not always what you want. Well, we
@@ -205,6 +205,33 @@
scalability; antlibs can be imported into their own namespaces, and
so you can avoid namespace clashes with other libraries. If you do
not know what namespaces are, do not worry -they are not compulsory.</P>
+
+<h3>All tasks can go in at the toplevel</h3>
+<p>
+
+Prior to Ant1.6, only three tasks were allowed outside
+targets : <taskdef>,<typedef> and <property>.
+Ant 1.6 puts an end to this distinction; anything can go in at the top
+level. This is partly because there were many more tasks that merited the
+option based on the original rationale of "global initialization tasks":
+<import> and <antlib> were the new additions, but existing
+tasks like <condition>, <available>, <xmlproperties>
+and <loadproperties> had equal rights.
+</p>
+<p>
+Rather that expand the set slightly, now all tasks are allowed outside
+targets. This gives external tasks the same rights as built in code,
+eliminates sporadic bug reports, and annoying error messages. It gives
+users the ability to write build files without any targets at all; the
+top-level declarations are processed in sequence.
+</p>
+
+On a style note, we strongly advocate using this feature carefully. It
+is best if zero-side-effect, initialization-only tasks get put into the
+top level. Remember also that all top level statements are processed in
+order, before any targets are executed. Even tasks at the end of the
+file will get executed before targets declared above them.
+
<H2>New Tasks</H2>
<P>As usual, the task base is growing and expanding. These days the
ant core is resisting adopting many of the highly worthy donations of
@@ -274,7 +301,7 @@
release!
</P>
<LI><P>Thank you to everyone who supplies the components we use in
- Ant, particularly JUnit, commons-logging, log4J, Xerces, and Xalan.
+ Ant, particularly JUnit, commons-logging, log4J, bcel, ORO, Xerces, and
Xalan.
</P>
<LI><P>Everyone who has supplied bug reports, especially those with
patches and tests.</P>
@@ -284,23 +311,20 @@
our memory leaks :)</P>
</UL>
<H3>Call to Action</H3>
-<P>It is an interesting time for Java. .NET is a serious challenger,
-and will get better. Microsoft are fully committed to .NET; as a
-software company it is their future. Sun, on the other hand, are
-still a hardware vendor who are trying to challenge both Microsoft
-and the PC vendors, and by implication Intel too. With those hardware
-margins under serious pressure from x86 and Linux+Win2K3, they cannot
-afford to cross-subsidize Java development the way they have done
-since 1995. We cannot rely on Sun alone for the survival of Java. So
-what then? IBM? In places, yes. IBM do contribute a lot. But the core
-strength of Java over .NET is its community. It is the community that
-gave the world leading edge development tools and other core
-components: Ant, JUnit, XDoclet, hsqldb, Hibernate, Struts, etc.
-These things weren't created by JCP committees, or built according to
-the strategic vision of a Fortune 100 company. They were written by
-Java developers, for Java developers, usually to meet their own
-tactical goals.
+
+<P>
+
+It is an interesting time for Java. .NET is a serious challenger, and
+will get better. A core strength of Java over .NET is its community. It
+is the community that gave the world leading edge development tools and
+other core components: Ant, JUnit, XDoclet, hsqldb, Hibernate, Struts,
+etc. These things weren't created by JCP committees, or built according
+to the strategic vision of a Fortune 100 company. They were written by
+Java developers, for Java developers, usually to meet their own tactical
+goals.
+
</P>
+
<P>If Java is to survive -and we think it ought to- everyone who can
needs to become active members of that community. It could be helping
with Ant, but it could just as easily be helping with any other open
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