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Date: Thu, 26 Oct 2000 10:14:23 -0700 (PDT)
From: Diane Holt <holtdl@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: Role of scripts [was Re: increment task]
To: ant-dev@jakarta.apache.org
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Who's asking for anything to be added? It sounded to me like something was
asking to be subtracted -- namely, the <script> task. I don't think your
analogy holds up. Is the idea that Ant is only for use by Java
programmers?

I mean, doesn't the whole big hoohoo about *not* making Ant itself a
"scripting language" in order to -avoid- having people have to learn Yet
Another Language pretty much fall down, if you're expected to learn the
language *it's programmed in* before you can even do anything other than
only the most basic of basic things?

I'm sorry I don't have the luxury of time to sit down and learn Java --
I'm trying to put a Java-oriented build system together. I can take the
time to learn as much Java as I need to -- at this point in time -- to get
that done. I can take the time to learn as much about XML at this point as
I need to to get that job done. Et cetera, et cetera... but I cannot take
the time to sit down and learn the entire Java language, or everything you
ever needed to know about XML (and XSLT, and XWhoKnowsWhat) -- I have a
job to get done, and if Ant is going to be some elitist tool, usable only
by those who already know everything there is to know about Java, etc.,
then it's not going to be a reasonable tool to use -- and I'll look
elsewhere for one that is.

Diane

--- Ken Wood <kwood@i2.com> wrote:
> If you'all want to add all this extra overhead to
> something that was meant to be light wieght
> and well focused, maybe a new effort should
> be started....
> 
> We could call it Ant++
> 
> Diane, I don't mean to sound cruel or harsh, but ignorance
> of java seems to me to be a lame excuse for adding something
> to Ant. That's like saying "Well, I don't know Fortran too
> well, but I'm good at Visual Basic. Why don't you Fortran
> guys add Visual Basic support to Fortran so I can use what
> I know."
> 
> Again, I'm not trying to be harsh, just trying to highlight what
> the issue is...
> 
> Oh, and let's please not start a Java vs JavaScript holy war...
> 
> Diane Holt wrote:
> 
> > --- Patrick Beard <beard@netscape.com> wrote:
> > > Being able to extend Ant's capabilities using Java is certainly a
> > > great thing, but having that be the only extension mechanism is
> > > limiting.
> >
> > And especially so to those Ant users who don't really know Java all
> that
> > well. I can't just whip out some new task -- but I can probably get a
> > script put together fairly easily (once I get back into js and start
> > remembering more of what I used to know :)
> >
> > Diane
> >
> > =====
> > (holtdl@yahoo.com)
> >
> > __________________________________________________
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> 


=====
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