> -----Original Message----- > From: Jon Stevens [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Monday, 11 December 2000 8:15 > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: [PROPOSAL] Optional Tasks > > > I'm still not sure what version of Ant this should apply to, but lets get > the proposal written before I spend a whole bunch more time justifying > myself for my reasons. I see a lot of people still not "getting it" so I > hope to have a proposal to clarify things for people. > > Here are the rules to the proposal: > > ----------------------------------------------------------------- > The definition of a "core" task is a task that Ant really cannot live > without. This would be similar to taglibs that are part of the core JSP > specification. > > The definition of an "optional" task is a task that really should be > packaged with the product it serves. > > However, there are cases where this is not feasible. Therefore, we will > provide a separate CVS repository and mailing lists that serve as > a storage > and support area for tasks that cannot be bundled with the original > products. Such as a perforce task. This would be similar to the taglibs > Jakarta Project.
I am cool with this idea. Maybe we can call the project "antlibs" :-) One thing which I would like some thought on is the situation where we have a task which defines an "interface" and for which there may be many implementations. A current example would be the <ejbjar> task which really defines an interface into which specific EJB deployment tools can be plugged in (as nested elements). Another candidate is the <javac> task itself. The current mess of supporting many compiler variations is not really nice. I would like to see a mechanism where different compilers could be plugged in. In fact such a system would allow the Jikes implementation to be moved out of the core and into the Jikes project. In summary, I think there are cases where it would be nice to define a common "interface" for a task and allow different implementations for this task. I don't want to lose sight of that unified approach because the optional tasks are scattered over the net. Cheers Conor
