Greetings, all, Just a quick update on the Version 7 build process:
* It's taken me a few days of serious head-scratching to load the current build process into my brain, which is not good since I was the one that originally designed it! Though I'm not sure I could have done significantly better given the tools available to me in Ant 1.5, I can promise you that the new design is _way_ simpler and way easier to understand, debug, and maintain.
* The current build system contains over 3,000 lines of Ant code, and I am basically rewriting all of it. Thus, it's going to take me a while to slog through it. I'm currently anticipating at least a week more of concentrated effort.
* I've currently got 'minimal' versions of quickStart, freshStart, and junit working with just one module (hackyKernel). Depending upon the Ant task invoked, the new build is between 2x and 5x faster than the current one. It will be interesting to see if the performance improvement increases, decreases, or stays the same as I bring more modules on line.
* It's been amusing to discover all of the little hacks people have snuck into the global build system over time to keep things going. So far, I've uncovered module-specific hacks for hackyInstaller, hackyEclipse, hackyPerf, hackyCGQM, and hackyKernel/usermaps. The new design should enable all of these hacks to go back to their local.build.xml targets where they belong.
I am going to have to divide my attention between the new build process and documentation updates for the 6.8 stable release. Depending upon how that goes, I'm thinking the stable release will be Monday or Tuesday.
Cheers, Philip
