From: Alexandru Popescu <the.mindstorm.mailinglist@...>
Date: 2006-07-23T03:47:50+09:00
Subject: Re: XML2RB - Executing XML

On 7/22/06, Erik Veenstra <erikveen@gmail.com> wrote:
> > Now, I don't want to start a flame, but for me Ant follows
> > quite well the principle: "let simple things be simple, and
> > make complex things possible".
>
> Since I would rather say "Ant makes simple things complex and
> complex things impossible.", I'm looking forward to your
> motivation.
>
> (Don't get me wrong. I don't want to offend you. I'm just
> curious.)
>

I will not. But, I have no means to proove it that I can do almost all
I want in Ant and with quite minimal effort.

Also, don't take me wrong: I haven't said I can do everything with
Ant. I was able to do what I needed till now (I can assure you that I
have quite a few projects in my portfolio).

> > ... but till now I haven't found any good alternatives.
>
> Rake? Ruby?

Why would I do that? My IDE doesn't support neither Rake, nor Ruby. I
don't have autocompletion for them and documentation hints. What would
be the real benefit? Removing some of the verbosity of XML. I can
agree with that (but let's not forget that some PL purist find some
verbosity in Ruby too ;-) ).


> It's not that hard to reimplement Ants
> functionality in Ruby. It's usually a good idea to build a DSL
> on top of a GPL, so all common stuff in a language (conditions
> and loops) is readily available.
>

Not sure what you are saying here. Ant may be considered a
weak/generic build system DSL, but other than this I am not sure what
are you refering to.

> Don't start from scratch if you're about to implement a DSL.

I haven't needed a DSL till now, or at least I haven't had the feeling
I needed one.

> You'll either have to reinvent a lot of wheels, or you just
> forget about the wheels and start driving the car without them.
>

That's what I always try to avoid: reinventing. If I can find
something that I can easily use, than here I am. If it is too
difficult than I will try something else.

> Ant is built from scratch. They skipped the wheels.
>

I am not gonna comment on such afirmations. (no intended offense, but
I cannot see the benefit of it ;-) ).

BR,

./alex
--
.w( the_mindstorm )p.

> gegroet,
> Erik V. - http://www.erikveen.dds.nl/
>
>
>