Thank you for clearly expressing an implementation of my request. I fully support your recommended syntax.
-----Original Message----- From: Dominique Devienne [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, March 08, 2002 11:53 AM To: 'Ant Developers List' Subject: RE: [PROPOSE] task parameters that are only supplied when a property is defined Yes, it is more wordy, on purpose, so it follows ANT's Understandability goal (Ant must be clearly understandible for a first time as well as a veteran user), and the attribute names chosen for <attribute> were also purposefully longish. I would just as well live with: <attribute name="label" property="lbl" ignoreifnotset="true" /> Of course, I was thinking that ANT-core would take care of these <attribute> sub-elements. --DD -----Original Message----- From: Steve Cohen [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, March 08, 2002 11:36 AM To: Ant Developers List Subject: RE: [PROPOSE] task parameters that are only supplied when a property is defined That's a little (a lot?) more wordy, but I wouldn't mind it as long as ANT handled it rather than each task. I don't think we would want to rewrite every task to handle this. The important thing is not to have to copy blocks of task code all over scripts just to parameterize certain attributes. -----Original Message----- From: Dominique Devienne [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, March 08, 2002 11:08 AM To: 'Ant Developers List' Subject: RE: [PROPOSE] task parameters that are only supplied when a property is defined Instead of this special syntax, how about being able to specify a task's attributes through <attribute> sub-elements? The example from Steve thus becomes: <stcheckout username="auser" password="secret" rootlocalfolder="C:\dev\buildtest\co"> <attribute name="URL" value="${starteam-url}" /> <attribute name="forced" value="true" /> <attribute name="label" valuefromproperty="lbl" ignoreattributeifpropertynotdefined="true" /> </stcheckout> One can use the simple name/value attributes of <attribute> to specify the task attribute as always (using literals or properties), and one can have more specific ways to use attribute as shown above (which works kind of like <propertycopy>). Of course, there are two drawbacks to this syntax: 1) What happens with the attribute is specified both as an attribute, and through <attribute>? I'd say a build syntax error. 2) Some tasks may already have an attribute sub-element? Maybe it should be <task-attribute> or <${taskname}-attribute>, <stcheckout-attribute> in this case? This, if nothing else, has the merit of being more explicit that $${lbl} or $?{lbl} or whatever. Just my 2c. --DD -----Original Message----- From: Steve Cohen [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, March 08, 2002 10:53 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [PROPOSE] task parameters that are only supplied when a property is defined I previously sent this idea in a message whose title may have hidden its importance, but this is an idea I'd really like to see and I'd like the developers to comment on it. What if there were a convenient syntax within ant for specifying task attributes based on properties such that if the property were not set the task code would never see the attribute? In other words, for example, look at this call: <stcheckout URL="STARTEAM:49201/Aproject/AView" username="auser" password="secret" rootlocalfolder="C:\dev\buildtest\co" forced="true" label = "${lbl}" /> If the lbl property is defined, the task will get its value as the label attribute. But if the lbl property is not defined, the task will get the text "${lbl}" and most likely fail. I am proposing a new syntax that would allow a property to be specified with a different meaning. Let's say this syntax is two dollar signs instead of one ($${property}). (This may not be the optimal symbol for the ant parser, but that is a detail - I am not wedded to any symbol). Using this syntax, the above example becomes: <stcheckout URL="STARTEAM:49201/Aproject/AView" username="auser" password="secret" rootlocalfolder="C:\dev\buildtest\co" forced="true" label = "$${lbl}" /> My proposal is that this syntax be interpreted this way: If the property lbl is defined, treat $${lbl} exactly as ${lbl} but if the property lbl is not defined, do not even pass the label attribute to the task. It seems to me that this would allow for much more flexible scripts, especially when more than one parameter of a task is optional and there are different use cases for the task. In the above example, to get the variable functionality desired, I must include two blocks in my script, one with the label attribute defined and the other without it, and put it some conditionals to direct the processing to the right place. This can get clumsy, especially if there are several attributes to parameterize; the combinatorial possiblilities could be large, making for scripts that are harder to understand or maintain. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For additional commands, e-mail: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For additional commands, e-mail: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For additional commands, e-mail: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For additional commands, e-mail: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For additional commands, e-mail: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
