It seems that the solution to every ant problem ends up being "use a property file". Or "it's tricky". Isn't *anything* straightforward in Ant? Except of course compiling Java source in a single source directory to a single destination directory.
Well, certainly the ol' if/unless thing could be added to <arg> and that would solve this particular issue. I'm on the fence with if/unless being added everywhere though - it can be convenient, but is that really the best solution?
I wish there were more mechanisms in ant to describe *process*. Instead (in my experience) I end up hacking up a bunch of property files to simulate state and using the ant targets to get in the way of these property files. I have a "build system" written in Ant that works acceptably well, but it's limited by what Ant cannot do.
I use Ant every day, BTW, so I'm not just sniping here. I really do want it to get better!
So how would you propose this particular conditional <arg> be solved in Ant such that you'd be happy with how it works?
By the way, Ant 1.6 has some very slick new features that are really right up your alley, Drew. <subant> is something you asked for, and it is now there. <import> could be used to "subclass" a generic build process and override targets (and if you're clever you could implement "abstract" targets :). <macrodef> does away with <antcall>, speeding things up dramatically if your builds used to use <antcall> extensively.
So, it *did* get better. What more do you want?
Erik
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