Mailing-List: contact ant-dev-help@jakarta.apache.org; run by ezmlm
Date: Thu, 21 Dec 2000 15:16:14 +1300 (NZDT)
From: Mariusz Nowostawski <mariusz@marni.otago.ac.nz>
To: ant-dev@jakarta.apache.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH] attempt 2 at javac refactoring.
In-Reply-To: <20001221014925.15726.qmail@web123.yahoomail.com>
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.21.0012211456180.31207-100000@marni.otago.ac.nz>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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On Wed, 20 Dec 2000, Diane Holt wrote:
> I agree about not losing the compiler property -- I need to specify which
> compiler is being used going in.

Yup. I have already counted your voice in that issue ;o)

> But I have to disagree with this idea:
> [...] 
> This would be a very bad idea, as far as I'm concerned -- I can't just
> have things compiling willy-nilly with any old compiler Ant happens to
> find. Yikes! Which compiler I'm using needs to be a very controlled aspect
> of the build.

I knew you will tell this!  I agree here, but you have to agree that just
throwing an exception is not good in here either. 
We have basically two cases (apart from the obvious where the compiler is
left completely up to ANT and the user):

one, where the developer wants full control over the compiler,
second, where the developer just suggests a compiler, but in fact
"any would possibly" do the job right.

In second case, I do not like the idea that if I suggest one compiler the
whole build just fails because user does not have it.
I would like it to be more robust here. 
In first case, I fully agree with you, and I think something like that:

$ ant 

Buildfile: build.xml

compile:
    [mkdir] Created dir: /blabla/classes
    [javac] Compiling 253 source files to /blabla/classes
    [javac] "custom" compiler is not available 
    [javac]    you will have to install a "custom" compiler first, 
    [javac]    or continue compiling on your won risk.
    [javac] Do you want to continue the build with JDK compilers? [yes/no]
? _

Would solve the issue. In the second case (where I just suggested a
compiler) I do not the user even bother typing 'yes', I want ANT do it by
default. The user knows what compiler was suggested, and if the build
fails with her "home-grown" compiler, it is up to her.


cheers
Mariusz