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To: ant-dev@jakarta.apache.org
Subject: Re: Another feature request??
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From: Stefan Bodewig <bodewig@apache.org>
Date: 29 Mar 2001 09:02:16 +0200
Message-ID: <m366gtm51j.fsf@bodewig.bost.de>
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Peter Donald <donaldp@apache.org> wrote:

> I think it would be a good idea to remove the attribute default from
> project tag. Instead we could always call the main target.

-1

I don't think it would make life any easier for users.

> This change would mean that you would no longer have to think
> (yaya!!!)  when trying to figure out which target is running when no
> parameters supplied.

Just run "ant -projecthelp" and it will tell you.  And even more, it
will no only tell you its name, but also what it does (if the
description attribute has been set).  And even better, it will tell
you what other targets are there and what to use them for.

Far easier than looking at the build file at all.

Finally I think your URL analogy shows a problem of this approach.
Most users of the www won't even know what a port is, they'd have no
idea that http://some.host/ was the same as http://some.host:80/.

So the "pure user", someone who just has to invoke Ant, but not really
fiddle with buildfiles - maybe he's just installing something that
uses Ant as its installation tool - won't know that there is a "magic"
target named main. Again "ant -projecthelp" would be the key, and it
is already there.

Stefan