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From: Tim Dawson <tdawson@wamnet.com>
To: 'Ant Developers List' <ant-dev@jakarta.apache.org>
Subject: RE: [ANT2] To <projectref> or not to <projectref>
Date: Tue, 6 Nov 2001 04:06:11 -0600 
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> > The original purpose of projectref (and import before that) 
> was to allow one 
> > project file to refer to another so that cross build file 
> DAGs could be 
> > built. The case we were given as an example was allowing 
> catalina to refer to 
> > jasper and make sure it was up to date.
> > 
> True. The question I am raising is whether this cross 
> referencing and DAG style
> will make for more "easy to understand" build files (as one 
> of the requirements 
> for ANT2 states) or not. Will general users, be tempted to 
> produce spaggetti
> builds because of the features set we would be offering?
> 
> I think these are valid questions to ask. Or at least to put 
> on the table so that
> we can examine any unintended consequences of the decisions 
> that are made.

I certainly think it will lead to easier to understand build
files. Another use case is jakarta-taglibs... just take a minute
to look at the way that 20+ projects inherit the same build.xml
through an XML import.  The inheritance is really ugly, because
Ant 1.x doesn't provide a good way to do it.

Users can always create spaghetti, whether its in one build file
or many (through the xml import).  The best we can do is make it
easy to do "good" things.

BTW: I sent out an Ant 1.x implementation a while ago (on 10/5)
that did a project import. Any chance on getting that or something
like it in a 1.x uild? Ant2 is dragging out, and there are needs
for ongoing eature additions such as this and the taskjar import
commands.

Tim

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