-100 :-\
IMHO, if/unless in targets are one of the worst features we have in the
ANT language.
I have to maintain a very large buildprocess and when I had to do
everything with
target/(@if|@unless) it was a complete nightmare to maintain. In
particular since you have
to polute your environment with properties whose only reason to exist is
to be able to
put them in the target attribute. If you have a complex condition, BANG
you need a new
property to keep track of the condition. And this properties stay
arround poluting the build.
Alternatively, you could use <if/> from antcontrib. You can write
conditions as complex
as you may want and evaluate them without requiring polution of the
property space.
Everything you can do with target/@if or target/@unless, can be done
with <if/> and much more.
<if/> does not make ANT more procedural than whatever else we have in
ANT. Every declarative
language on existance (AFAIK) has <if/>.
If there is anything we should do, is accept this and promote <if/> and
some other antcontrib
constructs into the core.
The only place I see a reason for @if or @unless is to decorate inner
elements of tasks, like we do
in <fileset> <exclude ... if="..."/> </fileset>. This is the only kind
of usage that I think
should be more pervasive across ANT.
I should be able to hide/show any subelement of the build (it would be
treated like a coment)
based on the evaluation of such attribute.
And this should be done by ProjectHelper itself, the task do not need to
know anything about it.
Something like:
<elementA>
.....
<elementQ ant-include:if="propertyQ">
<elementT>....</elementT>
</elementQ>
<elementR ant-include:unless="propertyR"/>
.....
<elementA>
In the above, if propertyQ is not defined, then elementQ and is children
(elementT) will
be treated as not there at all, by ProjectHelper.
Jose Alberto
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Alexey N. Solofnenko [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Sent: 05 May 2004 01:26
> To: Ant Developers List
> Subject: Re: ANT 1.7 features suggestion
>
>
> Could you please also update if and unless to accept a list
> of properties?
>
> - Alexey.
>
> Sullivan, Sean C - MWT wrote:
>
> >+1
> >
> >
> >
> >>-----Original Message-----
> >>From: Anthony Goubard [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> >>
> >>A few weeks ago, there was a discussion about the new
> features in ANT
> >>
> >>
> >1.7.
> >
> >
> >>[...]
> >>
> >> 1) Integrate if and unless at the Task level.
> >>This would allow all ANT tasks to have the if and unless attribute
> >>
> >>
> >(the
> >
> >
> >>same way that it has an id attribute).
> >>So far the only way to do it is by using <target> except if you use
> >>
> >>
> >one
> >
> >
> >>of the task which has already the "if" "unless" attributes such as
> >>
> >>
> ><fail>.
> >
> >
> >>I think ANT users would use this feature to remove some tartget
> >>
> >>
> >created
> >
> >
> >>only for the purpose of the "if" or would remove the
> ant-contrib <if>
> >>task.
> >>
> >>
> >
> >
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> >
> >
>
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