First of all, I totally agree with the comments regarding the
documentation. I always feel bad feeling that way because there really
is a lot of good stuff in the docs... I just always feel like I can
never find it as a reference.
To your specific example, there is a certain amount of the documentation
that seems to require one to already understand what is going on. For
example, I looked at the below and knew that "compile" and "testCompile"
where "Configurations"... and more specifically configurations put
together by the Java plugin. So I went and found table 18.5 and Figure
18.2 which both provide some context of these configurations.
An index would be nice and I hear they are working on it but to my mind
I really miss the quick reference of something like the ANT docs. "How
do I configure the jar task again?" click click "Ah, there are all of
the parameters and descriptions and several examples showing them in
practice."
...though even that expects some prior understanding of ANT mechanics I
guess.
I actually have a desire to contribute to the docs in some way but I'm
still not confident enough in any area that I feel I know what I'm
talking about. ;)
-Paul
Cédric Beust ♔ wrote:
For what it's worth, I have had (and still do) the exact same experience.
To me, the style guide is a bit similar to trying to learn a language by
learning premade sentences. There is too much emphasis on "how" and not
enough on "why".
I think one of my main problems from the code snippets there is that I
can't figure out which ones are "keywords" and which ones must be
defined or included.
For example, the first real example (5.4):
dependencies {
compile group: 'commons-collections', name: 'commons-collections', version:
'3.2'
testCompile group: 'junit', name: 'junit', version: '4.+'
}
What is compile? And testCompile? They are not explained before.
Actually, testCompile is never explained anywhere and that's the only
place it ever appears in the doc.
Every single code snippet in this documentation contains things like
that and it's extremely frustrating. I want to like Gradle but you
really need to make it much easier for people not interested in diving
deep in the source...
As I said in a previous message, walking through a simple migration
guide from ant would be a great start: pick a standard Java project
with sources, tests, local jar dependencies, external jar dependencies
and a packaging target, and step by step, show how to convert it to Gradle.
--
**/*Cédric*
/
On Fri, Dec 11, 2009 at 1:30 AM, tinca <[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>> wrote:
Hello,
After hours of struggling to get the gradle (groovy) way I must come
back to
the start line. What is your advice for a beginner (a long time Java
programmer), who has little or none knowledge in maven, ivy, groovy,
gradle
- where to start?
I understand many pieces from what I read and tried till now. It's
just they
don't come together. As soon as I need to step beyond what I see in
the user
guide I feel lost. For example, in my previous letter a task jar
defines the
following:
from sourceSets.main.classes
include [path/to/classes]
I got an error which says: cannot find include() method.
I already know what is sourceSet(s), what is main (I can redefine it
for my
purposes). "classes" makes the first headache. My guess that this
refers to
the set of classes produced by compile task (available under buildDir
property as defined by project). "from" means a kind of referencing
to this
set and include is the selection/filtering from that set.
If I do not want to guess what to do? I find SourceSet in the API,
this has
a method getClasses that supports my thinking (but how is it related
main.classes property(?), I cant see formal correspondence). What is
"from"
and "include", how do I find their description/meaning? Looking at the
Groovy Reference Card does not seem to help.
Can you advice me where to start with my basic understanding after
of what I
can fully enjoy gradle's wonders?
Your help much appreciated!
--
View this message in context:
http://old.nabble.com/where-to-start-for-a-beginner-tp26741219p26741219.html
Sent from the gradle-user mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe from this list, please visit:
http://xircles.codehaus.org/manage_email
---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe from this list, please visit:
http://xircles.codehaus.org/manage_email
