How would you go about the problem of compiling compilation units with
package level visibility. Would you depend on javac's dependency checking
or would you have to create a master class in that package?
If this feature is going to be incorporated in jde without using the javac
command line tool it would probably also be quite easy to write a custom
wrapper class for the compiler which would make the use of master classes
transparent, i.e. not creating any actual source file. I guess the adding
of sources could be simplified aswell, otherwise jde would have to add a
reference to every new class in the master class. Or am I misinterpreting
the implementation of this new feature?
--
knut
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Paul Kinnucan [SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Sent: Monday, March 19, 2001 4:11 PM
> To: Stephane; Richard den Adel
> Cc: JDE Mailing List
> Subject: Re: PROPOSAL: New Java Build Feature
>
> At 09:44 AM 3/19/2001 -0500, Stephane wrote:
> >Hello all,
> >
> >i don't find this way very clean (but perhaps my poor english
> understanding
> >helped :) ).
> >
> >I think we shall better consider the use of ant (jakarta.apache.org) ,
> this
> >software greatly enhances project management and automates many tasks for
>
> >programmers such as compilation.
> >
> >I used to have a big projet (~15000 classes) that was compiled through a
> >hierarchy of makefiles. When we used the ant, i took us 10 minutes to
> write a
> >project file that compiled all thoses classes in a shot !
>
> My problem with make is that it is not equipped to do dependency checking
> for Java. I had hoped that ant would provide an alternative to make but my
> understanding from others who have looked at ant is that it does NOT solve
> the problem of dependency checking either.
>
> In any event, my proposal can be combined with make or ant. All I am
> suggesting is that instead of trying to compile every class in your
> project, ant or make could compile only one: a compile master that
> references every class in your project. The Java compiler would then make
> sure that all files that needed to be compiled would be compiled. I think
> this approach, which I did not originate, is brilliant.
>
> I have been struggling with how to use make (or ant) to build projects for
> the last four years and have never been satisfied with the results as far
> as dependency checking is concerned. I have also had extended discussions
> with others who have used ant or make and whenever I ask how they handle
> dependency checking I get a lot of hand-waving or some arcane scheme that
> involves running jikes to generate dependency files and perl scripts, etc.
> The scheme that I am proposing for the JDE is the first one that I have
> discovered that provides simplicity, efficiency (only files that need to
> be recompiled are recompiled), and speed (one vm startup per build).
>
> If you can suggest a simpler, faster, more effient method, I am all ears.
> If your solution is ant, then you must convince me that it is possible to
> get true dependency checking easily, that is, there is some simple method
> for creating an ant makefile that guarantees that all files that need to
> be
> recompiled are recompiled and only the files that need to be recompiled
> are
> recompiled.
>
> Again, I am not suggesting that compile-masters replace make or ant, only
> one function of ant and make, namely dependency checking of compile
> targets.
>
> - Paul
>
