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Posted to dev@ant.apache.org by Frederic Lavigne <fr...@L2FProd.com> on 2000/07/22 16:23:05 UTC

AntHill, the GUI for Ant

Hi,

I recently downloaded Ant1.1 and look at the TODO list and I notice this
todo item:

 "* GUI front end -- examine tasks, add task properties, etc. Also,
    one button push build of a particular target."

I like doing UI (see www.L2FProd.com to understand :) ) so I'm currently
working on AntHill, the GUI for Ant.

During this time, I encountered some problems.

1. Bugs related to sourcepath parameter in javac, javadoc task definitions:
AFAIK, all paths used in ant must be resolved by project.resolveFile(...).
But in Javac and Javadoc taskdefs, the srcdir and sourcepath are not
resolved. This makes the build fails if it started from a random directory.
I didn't look at all taskdefs, maybe this happens elsewhere (rmic  task?).
For now, I create 2 tasks MyJavac and MyJavadoc and override the setSrcdir
and setSourcepath.

2. I present task attributes in a tabular form. I would like to see these
attributes sorted (the most commonly used first).
The simplest solution will be to sort the setter methods in the code in the
smarter order.

3. I was looking for a DTD or schema for ant. I understand that as we can
create new taskdefs, we should also provide the corresponding DTD. I didn't
find any answer in the FAQ.

4. Is there a mailing list archive somewhere ?

5. AntHill is made with JDK1.2.
I will try to support JDK1.1/Swing1.1.1 but I rely on some user interface
library I've done.
I will need to rewrite some code for JDK1.1 (remove references to
collections package for example).

6. There is no version available yet (I started AntHill on friday).
I attached a screenshot of the current development version.

7. Planned AntHill Features are:
* create/edit/remove targets, tasks (at least!)
* new project, new target from templates
* ide plugin (jbuilder, forte, cafe) ?
* drag'n drop support
* automagically update dependencies when a target is renamed

Comments, Feature Requests, Suggestions are welcome.

Best Regards,

Frederic Lavigne, fred@L2FProd.com
java software at http://www.L2FProd.com


Re: AntHill, the GUI for Ant

Posted by Stefan Bodewig <bo...@bost.de>.
>>>>> "FL" == Frederic Lavigne <fr...@L2FProd.com> writes:

 FL> 1. Bugs related to sourcepath parameter in javac, javadoc task
 FL> definitions: AFAIK, all paths used in ant must be resolved by
 FL> project.resolveFile(...).

There is no *must* but if tasks use setXXX(File) this File instance is
guaranteed to be resolved by above method. This feature is quite new
so not all tasks use it - others might avoid doing so for some
reason. I'll have a look at Javac and Javadoc to see what's up.

 FL> 3. I was looking for a DTD or schema for ant. I understand that
 FL> as we can create new taskdefs, we should also provide the
 FL> corresponding DTD. I didn't find any answer in the FAQ.

Now there is one, see FAQ.

There is a task named antstructure (for the time being) that takes a
single attribute (output, filename for the dumped DTD). This creates a
DTD including all tasks Ant currently knows about. This one should
only be used as a starting point as it doesn't know which attributes
are required - while Michel's hand crafted work referenced in the FAQ
does know this.

Michel describes a way to extend a basic DTD for custom tasks at the
page referenced in the FAQ.

 FL> but I rely on some user interface library I've done.

As you've said in another thread you plan to release it under GPL. This
means we couldn't include it with Ant. But I'd be happy to include at
least a pointer to AntHill (once it is available) in the documentation
and I ask you to add an entry to the FAQ yourself.

Stefan

RE: AntHill, the GUI for Ant

Posted by Ken Liu <kl...@auctionlogic.com>.
Looks sweet.  I'm anxious to see it.  I probably won't use it, but one of
the other developers keeps calling for a GUI front end for ant.

Ken

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Frederic Lavigne [mailto:fred@L2FProd.com]
> Sent: Saturday, July 22, 2000 10:23 AM
> To: ant-dev@jakarta.apache.org
> Subject: AntHill, the GUI for Ant
>
>
> Hi,
>
> I recently downloaded Ant1.1 and look at the TODO list and I notice this
> todo item:
>
>  "* GUI front end -- examine tasks, add task properties, etc. Also,
>     one button push build of a particular target."
>
> I like doing UI (see www.L2FProd.com to understand :) ) so I'm currently
> working on AntHill, the GUI for Ant.
>
> During this time, I encountered some problems.
>
> 1. Bugs related to sourcepath parameter in javac, javadoc task
> definitions:
> AFAIK, all paths used in ant must be resolved by project.resolveFile(...).
> But in Javac and Javadoc taskdefs, the srcdir and sourcepath are not
> resolved. This makes the build fails if it started from a random
> directory.
> I didn't look at all taskdefs, maybe this happens elsewhere (rmic  task?).
> For now, I create 2 tasks MyJavac and MyJavadoc and override the setSrcdir
> and setSourcepath.
>
> 2. I present task attributes in a tabular form. I would like to see these
> attributes sorted (the most commonly used first).
> The simplest solution will be to sort the setter methods in the
> code in the
> smarter order.
>
> 3. I was looking for a DTD or schema for ant. I understand that as we can
> create new taskdefs, we should also provide the corresponding
> DTD. I didn't
> find any answer in the FAQ.
>
> 4. Is there a mailing list archive somewhere ?
>
> 5. AntHill is made with JDK1.2.
> I will try to support JDK1.1/Swing1.1.1 but I rely on some user interface
> library I've done.
> I will need to rewrite some code for JDK1.1 (remove references to
> collections package for example).
>
> 6. There is no version available yet (I started AntHill on friday).
> I attached a screenshot of the current development version.
>
> 7. Planned AntHill Features are:
> * create/edit/remove targets, tasks (at least!)
> * new project, new target from templates
> * ide plugin (jbuilder, forte, cafe) ?
> * drag'n drop support
> * automagically update dependencies when a target is renamed
>
> Comments, Feature Requests, Suggestions are welcome.
>
> Best Regards,
>
> Frederic Lavigne, fred@L2FProd.com
> java software at http://www.L2FProd.com
>
>


Re: AntHill, the GUI for Ant

Posted by Peter Donald <do...@mad.scientist.com>.
At 04:23  22/7/00 +0200, you wrote:
>Hi,
>
>I recently downloaded Ant1.1 and look at the TODO list and I notice this
>todo item:
>
> "* GUI front end -- examine tasks, add task properties, etc. Also,
>    one button push build of a particular target."
>
>I like doing UI (see www.L2FProd.com to understand :) ) so I'm currently
>working on AntHill, the GUI for Ant.

wooohooo :P. I won't use it but I am sure it will garner supporters in
various ide developers :P

>2. I present task attributes in a tabular form. I would like to see these
>attributes sorted (the most commonly used first).
>The simplest solution will be to sort the setter methods in the code in the
>smarter order.

Unfortunately that is not possible because reflection ordering changes
between 1.1/1.2/1.3. I used to rely on this until; my work started to stop
working :<

>3. I was looking for a DTD or schema for ant. I understand that as we can
>create new taskdefs, we should also provide the corresponding DTD. I didn't
>find any answer in the FAQ.

Stefan Bodewig created a task org.apache.tools.ant.taskdefs.AntStructure
(used via antstructure) to generate DTDs. Not sure exaclty how it works -
haven't looked at it yet :P

>4. Is there a mailing list archive somewhere ?

details are in first mail you received when joined list. It follows

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***

>5. AntHill is made with JDK1.2.
>I will try to support JDK1.1/Swing1.1.1 but I rely on some user interface
>library I've done.
>I will need to rewrite some code for JDK1.1 (remove references to
>collections package for example).

well as long as it doesn't compromise your app it would be good to support
1.1 (even thou it is a pain and almost all platforms with 1.1 have 1.3).

>6. There is no version available yet (I started AntHill on friday).
>I attached a screenshot of the current development version.

looks very good :P

>7. Planned AntHill Features are:
>* create/edit/remove targets, tasks (at least!)
>* new project, new target from templates
>* ide plugin (jbuilder, forte, cafe) ?
>* drag'n drop support
>* automagically update dependencies when a target is renamed
>
>Comments, Feature Requests, Suggestions are welcome.

No requests - you seemed to have covered all bases :P

Cheers,

Pete

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