Hi Scott, The driver for this kind of functionality would be orientated more at the end user who has been charged with setting up an automated build. With that in mind I think the solution might possibly consist of a few layers:
-------------------------------- Tools (e.g. NAntpad) -------------------------------- NAnt Designers -------------------------------- NAnt / NAnt DOM -------------------------------- We already have NAnt. What I am suggesting is that as part of the NAnt distribution (or possibly a side project) we start building a series of designers - where designers are just UI bits which can provide a view of an XML element representing a NAnt task. Other tools (i.e. not part of the NAnt distribution) would use these designers to construct their own interfaces. So, for example when someone using NAntpad (I'm just using NAntpad as an example here) uses that particular interface to modify the settings on a task, the NAnt designer can be invoked to provide the interface. Tool designers could choose to override the designer if they wish but this approach would allow task developers to put together usable UI for others to manipuate their tasks with. Tools could add additional value by providing things like wizards which allow the end user to put together solutions to common problems. For example building a VS.NET project, manipulating AssemblyVersionInfo files, updating dependencies etc. Pity we can't get a whiteboard session going :) ---------------------------------------- - Mitch Denny - [EMAIL PROTECTED] - http://www.monash.net - +61 (414) 610141 - > -----Original Message----- > From: Scott Hernandez [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Tuesday, September 30, 2003 5:04 AM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Re: [nant-dev] NAnt Designer Support > > I'm not sure what user experience this would provide. What > kind of designer would the nant stuff look like? Would it be > like the xsd editor, or database schema editor, with > something like a flow diagram of tasks? Would it be a buff'd > up tree control, like the vsnet addin is now? I understand > that having a designer based solution would allow for much > more flexibility and extensibility in the future, but it > seems a little much considering we are working on getting a > 1.0 release of the core functionally out. I'm really > interested in hearing how this stuff would work, and who this > is targeted at, but I just don't think I see it yet. > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Mitch Denny" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Sent: Monday, September 29, 2003 4:31 AM > Subject: RE: [nant-dev] NAnt Designer Support > > > > Hi Scott, > > > > We wouldn't need to modify the existing code base much other than > > decorating tasks (and sometimes their properties/attributes with > > attributes. The idea behind the design time attributes is > not to create > > a tool inside the NAnt distribution itself, but rather support the > > development editors like NAntpad. Kinda like the way the component > > designer features in the .NET framework work in VS.NET and > WebMatrix. > > > > The design time tool would reflect over the task class > libraries looking > > for classes decorated with the designer attribute. When a task is > > selected from a build file the type pointed to by the > designer attribute > > is created and a method is invoked which returns a UI > object which can > > be used to build the XML node. This creation method would have some > > contextual information passed to it like which OS/UI > toolkit it needs to > > support. > > > > If the designer doesn't support that environment then the tool (e.g. > > NAntpad would gracefully downgrade to its basic capabilities. > > > > ------------------------------------------------------- > This sf.net email is sponsored by:ThinkGeek > Welcome to geek heaven. > http://thinkgeek.com/sf > _______________________________________________ > nant-developers mailing list > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/nant-developers > ------------------------------------------------------- This sf.net email is sponsored by:ThinkGeek Welcome to geek heaven. http://thinkgeek.com/sf _______________________________________________ nant-developers mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/nant-developers
