Some more thoughts on namespaces...
>
> > I do not like the "type" attribute, type is already use on several
> > places like <available>
>
> names ...
>
> This is where I'd really see a magical namespace for attributes that
> get parsed by Ant's core.
>
Then the whole thing would resemble XML Schema Instance very much, where you
have an xsi:type attribute for pretty much the same purpose. Did you have
something like this in mind?
<dependset>
<srcfileset ant:type="zipfileset" src="some.zip"/>
</dependset>
Here "ant:type" declares what type/task to use for the "srcfileset" role of
<dependset/>. All other attributes (and nested elements) of the
<srcfileset/> element get passed to the created <zipfileset/> instance.
But this would introduce XML namespaces. I suppose that if antlib was to
use namespaces (as has been discussed) at a later stage it would be no
problem to extend this role mechanism to use them. E.g.
<dependset>
<srcfileset ant:type="my:foofileset"/>
</dependset>
would create a <foofileset/> instance of the antlib bound to the namespace
associated with the "my" prefix. When used standalone (not as a role of
some other task or type) it would be used with the same name:
<my:foofileset id="foo.set"/>
All this is just syntax of course. But I think that's an important aspect
as well. Although currently most people seem to think that namespaces
should be addressed at a later stage and separately of the role and antlib
concepts.
--
knut
