> -----Original Message-----
> From: Paul Kinnucan [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Sent: Monday, March 19, 2001 1:23 PM
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Cc: Stephane; Richard den Adel; JDE Mailing List
> Subject: Re: PROPOSAL: New Java Build Feature
{snip!}
> >> 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'm going to jump in here. I get the sense there's been a fair amount
of back and forth here on this proposal. I searched the archives
looking for how to use Ant with JDE and read five or six posts
regarding Paul's proposal, so perhaps there are others that have not
yet been posted there ... but anyway, here goes ...
I'm using Ant 1.3 and the <javac> task only compiles the classes that
need recompiling. Perhaps they have over-ridden the behavior of
javac--if you're curious, you can take a look at the source for the
javac task on Apache's webCVS page.
I have been using Ant in conjunction with JUnit 3.5 for the past two
weeks and I can't recommend it strongly enough.
I am starting to think about my classes so they are "testable" which
means I think about the interface first and foremost. A side-effect
is that I try to minimize the interface so I don't have to write many
test methods.
I'm starting to write my test code first, and then the production
code. When the production code passes the test, I'm done. I've
become much more aggressive in refactoring code that I have tests
written for; I am (fairly :) confident that if it passes the tests,
then I'm done.
I would suggest using the functionality built into Ant for dependency
checking when building. Again, sorry if this rehashes stuff that has
already been covered in gory detail, but I just signed (back) on to
the list today.
