On Tue, 2003-04-01 at 10:33, Colin Sampaleanu wrote:

> Jason, can you clarify what the real issue with multiple source 
> directories is? 

Separation of concerns. If you have gone to the trouble of separating
your sources into a separate tree then you probably did it for a reason.
When you have multiple sources trees, you usually have multiple
concerns. Testing usually becomes muddled, lots of hacks find their way
into the code because the source trees are mixed up. This is also a
problem on Maven's side because you can't deal with each project
uniformly. Plugins become really ugly when having to look in N places
for sources, what to do if there is more than one, how they relate ...
just gets nasty.

> While having Maven encourage good source organization practices is a 
> laudible goal, are there any real technical issues with supporting 
> multiple source directories? 

None. Maven could support N source directories. But just because it's
technically possible doesn't mean it's a good thing or should be
supported.

> Given that Maven already does support 
> multiple source dirs in the only fashion I use them (to separate test 
> sources from non-test sources), and handles generated sources (from the 
> like of xdoclet), I don't personally need anything more for my projects. 

Multiple source directories are not supported. The addPath tag is being
abused if people are not using it in conjunction with some generative
process and it will just eventually bite them in the ass. Make their
projects many fold more complex than they have to be, developer
comprehension will drop an order of magnitude and it's generally a
lose/lose situation. 

> However this restriction seems like a somewhat arbitrary decision 
> notheless, 

Far from arbitrary. People can use the addPath tag to work around it and
to migrate projects but I certainly don't recommend it ever. At least in
the POM more than one source directory will never be supported.

-- 
jvz.

Jason van Zyl
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://tambora.zenplex.org

In short, man creates for himself a new religion of a rational
and technical order to justify his work and to be justified in it.
  
  -- Jacques Ellul, The Technological Society


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