It seems like there are a number of questions to answer in this discussion.
I can find (or think of myself) at least the following ones:
1. Shall each port be able to fetch the source for all its bytecode?
(given that this is both legal and technically possible to implement)
2. Shall each port that can fetch such source also fetch it by default?
3. Shall each port that can fetch such source also be able to build
the bytecode from that source?
4. Shall each port that can build the bytecode from the source also
build it by default?
5. Can a port be accepted even if it violates any of the above decisions?
(And if so: Under which circumstances? And which warnings or other
special measures shall be used to handle that port?)
6. Can a port be accepted when it is illegal or techically impossible
for the port to fetch the source for all its bytecode? (And if so:
Under which circumstances? And which warnings or other special
measures shall be used to handle that port?)
7. Shall support be added in the ports system for building a file for
just a single target and then reuse the result on a number of target
platforms?
And as several people has noted, these questions does not only relate
to java bytecode, but also to all kinds of generated files, including
documents and run-time libraries.
/Johan
ps. I know how I would answer most of the questions, but I am not a port
maintainer. (To be honest, I rarely have the time to even install
anything else than packages.) So I try to avoid giving brilliant
solutions that everyone else knows would fail ;-)
ds.
