On Wed, Apr 11, 2001 at 11:48:15PM -0400, Geir Magnusson Jr. wrote:
> Jeff Turner wrote:
> >
> > Are these characterizations right?
> >
> > - If Ant isn't bundled, then there's no shell files, and build.xml and
> > build.properties can be dropped in the project root, just like Makefiles.
> > Nice, simple and intuitive.
>
> Except you punted the entire issue by making people install Ant.
I'm saying that *if* Commons doesn't bundle Ant, then the major point of
contention in Craig's original post (the "build" directory) goes away.
> > - If Ant isn't bundled, then dependencies becomes a hassle.
>
> Seems so.
>
> > - The dependency problem can be solved by a commons/lib directory, containing
> > optional.jar, junit.jar, xerces1.2.2.jar, etc. The INSTALL doc then tells
> > people to drop this stuff in $ANT_HOME/lib, if it's not already there.
>
> Maybe. I don't think we should make people drop things into what could
> be part of their working environment to play with our stuff. I mean, if
> you depended upon your current ant configuration for your daily work (
> and you probably do...) would you want to drop arbitrary things in there
> to play with some software?
This isn't project-specific stuff they'd be putting in $ANT_HOME/lib. It would
be jars necessary to get Ant's optional tasks working. Once they've done "cp
commons/lib/*.jar $ANT_HOME/lib", tasks like <stylebook> will work universally.
> > Otherwise it's back to bundling Ant, script files, "build" directories, etc,
> > which would be sad.
>
> Come on. Its so easy, and makes it so easy for users.... Is this some
> urban legend? Has anyone really run into great difficulties with this?
Bundling Ant does greatly lessen the initial build pain. I do it myself (using
"ant" instead of "build").
I got the impression that Craig's proposal was more long-term. Should *every*
Jakarta project bundle Ant?
Imagine that every project relies on a pre-installed Ant, and only bundles jars
for needed optional tasks. After doing "cp lib/*.jar $ANT_HOME/lib" for a few
projects, the problem goes away. Eg, by installing Commons, you get <junit> and
<stylebook> enabled for all future projects.
Anyway, I share your concern for making that first build as pain-free as
possible. Bundling Ant is a non-ideal, but highly effective solution. I just
see Craig's Ant-free proposal as a long-term-better,
short-term-slightly-more-painful step in the right direction.
--Jeff
> geir
>
> --
> Geir Magnusson Jr. [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Developing for the web? See http://jakarta.apache.org/velocity/
