From: Jim Weirich Date: 2004-05-11T05:12:18+09:00 Subject: Re: in search of a compelling reason to use ruby.... rolo wrote: > > -----Original Message----- > From: Jim Weirich [mailto:jim@weirichhouse.org] > > task :compile do |t| > java.compile t.source > end > > rolo writes: > > What is this task..? a method..? Task is a method that takes an argument (the symbol :compile in this example) and a block to be executed when the compile task is required. A series of task declarations along with the appropriate dependencies will describe how to build a project. When the rake program is invoked, it loads the task declarations (which are just ruby code) and determines the order of the tasks to be executed, then invokes the proper blocks to build the system. Rake is smart enough to only invoke a task if it is required, and to not invoke it more than once. It is almost a direct replacement for make, but all in Ruby. See http://rake.rubyforge.org/ for more details. -- -- Jim Weirich jim@weirichhouse.org http://onestepback.org ----------------------------------------------------------------- "Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct, not tried it." -- Donald Knuth (in a memo to Peter van Emde Boas)