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Posted to user@ant.apache.org by Rhino <rh...@sympatico.ca> on 2004/10/22 15:36:23 UTC
Improving Tasks
I'm starting to get the hang of Ant now and am starting to think about developing some tasks to increase what it can do.
However, before I start developing entirely new tasks, I thought I might take a whack at improving a few existing tasks. One improvement I'm thinking about involves the core task <input>. I'd like to enhance it in a couple of ways:
1. Provide for a masked input field so that it could be used to prompt for a password that would remain unreadable to anyone looking over the users shoulder. (I envision adding a 'mask="true"' parameter to make that possible with the default for 'mask' being 'false'.)
2. I'm thinking about adding the capability of having a radio button group and/or drop down lists so that there are some additional ways for users to provide input.
The problem here is that I haven't any real idea how to go about this. How would I get my hands on the source code for the existing task without stepping on anyone's toes? Would my enhancements have to be approved in advance or would I submit them and then go through some kind of voting process by Ant users with my changes discarded if I didn't "win" the vote? What testing would I have to do to satisfy the Ant community that my code was clean enough to implement?
Or should I develop an entirely new task with the intent of deprecating <input> and replacing it with my 'better' task (assuming I can get it to work ;-)?
By the way, is this the right list for these sorts of questions or should I be asking on the developers list?
Rhino
---
rhino1 AT sympatico DOT ca
"There are two ways of constructing a software design. One way is to make it so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies. And the other way is to make it so complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies." - C.A.R. Hoare
Re: Improving Tasks
Posted by Rhino <rh...@sympatico.ca>.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Stefan Bodewig" <bo...@apache.org>
To: <us...@ant.apache.org>
Sent: Friday, October 22, 2004 9:55 AM
Subject: Re: Improving Tasks
> On Fri, 22 Oct 2004, Rhino <rh...@sympatico.ca> wrote:
>
> > I'm starting to get the hang of Ant now and am starting to think
> > about developing some tasks to increase what it can do.
>
> Welcome.
>
> > 1. Provide for a masked input field so that it could be used to
> > prompt for a password that would remain unreadable to anyone looking
> > over the users shoulder. (I envision adding a 'mask="true"'
> > parameter to make that possible with the default for 'mask' being
> > 'false'.)
>
> Good luck ...
>
> IOW, we've tried before but couldn't produce a cross-platform
> solution. Maybe you have a new approach, this would be great.
>
I see! I think I may have to discard this idea after all; I just assumed
that the reason a masked field wasn't available in <input> was because no
one ever bothered to add it. I didn't realize that it had been tried but ran
into portability issues. I certainly don't have any brilliant idea about how
to make a masked field portable.
> > 2. I'm thinking about adding the capability of having a radio button
> > group and/or drop down lists so that there are some additional ways
> > for users to provide input.
>
> Take a look at InputHandler[1] - you can provide a Swing InputHandler (I
> vaguelly recall somebody has coded this already).
>
> > The problem here is that I haven't any real idea how to go about
> > this. How would I get my hands on the source code for the existing
> > task without stepping on anyone's toes?
>
> No worries. Nobody owns any tasks in Ant.
>
I'm glad to hear that; I don't want to start off by upsetting people who
feel "ownership" over the existing tasks.
> > Would my enhancements have to be approved in advance or would I
> > submit them and then go through some kind of voting process by Ant
> > users with my changes discarded if I didn't "win" the vote?
>
> Please read around a little in the Contribution and Project Managment
> sections of the Ant website. "Votes" on changes would be performed by
> the committers (not users) on the dev@ant list.
>
> > What testing would I have to do to satisfy the Ant community that my
> > code was clean enough to implement?
>
> JUnit tests speak louder than any screen shot 8-)
>
Thanks for your answers ;-)
Rhino
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Re: Improving Tasks
Posted by Stefan Bodewig <bo...@apache.org>.
On Fri, 22 Oct 2004, Rhino <rh...@sympatico.ca> wrote:
> I'm starting to get the hang of Ant now and am starting to think
> about developing some tasks to increase what it can do.
Welcome.
> 1. Provide for a masked input field so that it could be used to
> prompt for a password that would remain unreadable to anyone looking
> over the users shoulder. (I envision adding a 'mask="true"'
> parameter to make that possible with the default for 'mask' being
> 'false'.)
Good luck ...
IOW, we've tried before but couldn't produce a cross-platform
solution. Maybe you have a new approach, this would be great.
> 2. I'm thinking about adding the capability of having a radio button
> group and/or drop down lists so that there are some additional ways
> for users to provide input.
Take a look at InputHandler[1] - you can provide a Swing InputHandler (I
vaguelly recall somebody has coded this already).
> The problem here is that I haven't any real idea how to go about
> this. How would I get my hands on the source code for the existing
> task without stepping on anyone's toes?
No worries. Nobody owns any tasks in Ant.
> Would my enhancements have to be approved in advance or would I
> submit them and then go through some kind of voting process by Ant
> users with my changes discarded if I didn't "win" the vote?
Please read around a little in the Contribution and Project Managment
sections of the Ant website. "Votes" on changes would be performed by
the committers (not users) on the dev@ant list.
> What testing would I have to do to satisfy the Ant community that my
> code was clean enough to implement?
JUnit tests speak louder than any screen shot 8-)
Cheers
Stefan
Footnotes:
[1] http://ant.apache.org/manual/inputhandler.html
--
http://stefanbodewig.blogger.de/
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Re: Improving Tasks
Posted by Rhino <rh...@sympatico.ca>.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Robert Koberg" <ro...@koberg.com>
To: "Ant Users List" <us...@ant.apache.org>
Sent: Friday, October 22, 2004 9:40 AM
Subject: Re: Improving Tasks
> Rhino wrote:
>
> > 1. Provide for a masked input field so that it could be used to prompt
> > for a password that would remain unreadable to anyone looking over the
> > users shoulder. (I envision adding a 'mask="true"' parameter to make
> > that possible with the default for 'mask' being 'false'.)
>
> I like this alot.
>
Stephan's reply to my post says that this has been attempted before but no
one could find a way that worked on all of the platforms. I don't have any
better ideas so you probably shouldn't hold your breath on this idea ;-)
> Another area that would be nice to 'improve' (maybe it already exists in
> another form?) would be the condition task. I have a situation where I
> would like to get the input from a yes/no input task (Would you like to
> get xxx from the server?), if yes then prompt from username and
> password. Is this currently possible?
>
I imagine you could get the desired result if your <input> task prompted for
the 'yes'/'no' and then you used conditions to only prompt for the username
and password in a separate target. I haven't actually tried exactly what you
are describing but it seems like something that should work.
But I think you want to prompt for the 'yes'/'no' *and* the
username/password on the same dialog. I expect that would require major
changes to <input>.
Rhino
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Re: Improving Tasks
Posted by Robert Koberg <ro...@koberg.com>.
Rhino wrote:
> 1. Provide for a masked input field so that it could be used to prompt
> for a password that would remain unreadable to anyone looking over the
> users shoulder. (I envision adding a 'mask="true"' parameter to make
> that possible with the default for 'mask' being 'false'.)
I like this alot.
Another area that would be nice to 'improve' (maybe it already exists in
another form?) would be the condition task. I have a situation where I
would like to get the input from a yes/no input task (Would you like to
get xxx from the server?), if yes then prompt from username and
password. Is this currently possible?
best,
-Rob
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Re: Improving Tasks
Posted by Ivan Ivanov <ra...@yahoo.com>.
Hello,
>
> However, before I start developing entirely new
> tasks, I thought I might take a whack at improving a
> few existing tasks. One improvement I'm thinking
> about involves the core task <input>. I'd like to
> enhance it in a couple of ways:
> 1. Provide for a masked input field so that it could
> be used to prompt for a password that would remain
> unreadable to anyone looking over the users
> shoulder. (I envision adding a 'mask="true"'
> parameter to make that possible with the default for
> 'mask' being 'false'.)
I have already implemented two InputHandlers - one
that reads and masks password from command line and
one that show a Swing dialog with password field. You
can find the at Ant Resource page, Section Articles
[1], the article "Extending Ant Input Abilities". If
you have any question on it I would be he happy to
answer them.
[1] http://ant.apache.org/resources.html
> 2. I'm thinking about adding the capability of
> having a radio button group and/or drop down lists
> so that there are some additional ways for users to
> provide input.
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Re: Improving Tasks
Posted by Rhino <rh...@sympatico.ca>.
Thank you! I hadn't gotten to those pages yet; they look like they are going
to be very helpful in understanding the open source development process.
Rhino
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jeff Davidson" <je...@shaw.ca>
To: "'Ant Users List'" <us...@ant.apache.org>
Sent: Friday, October 22, 2004 9:43 AM
Subject: RE: Improving Tasks
I think this page should answer all your questions:
http://jakarta.apache.org/site/getinvolved.html
Check out the "Contribute Code or Documentation Patches" section, in
particular.
Regards,
~Jeff
-----Original Message-----
From: Rhino [mailto:rhino1@sympatico.ca]
Sent: Friday, October 22, 2004 6:36 AM
To: ant-user
Subject: Improving Tasks
I'm starting to get the hang of Ant now and am starting to think about
developing some tasks to increase what it can do.
However, before I start developing entirely new tasks, I thought I might
take a whack at improving a few existing tasks. One improvement I'm thinking
about involves the core task <input>. I'd like to enhance it in a couple of
ways:
1. Provide for a masked input field so that it could be used to prompt for a
password that would remain unreadable to anyone looking over the users
shoulder. (I envision adding a 'mask="true"' parameter to make that possible
with the default for 'mask' being 'false'.)
2. I'm thinking about adding the capability of having a radio button group
and/or drop down lists so that there are some additional ways for users to
provide input.
The problem here is that I haven't any real idea how to go about this. How
would I get my hands on the source code for the existing task without
stepping on anyone's toes? Would my enhancements have to be approved in
advance or would I submit them and then go through some kind of voting
process by Ant users with my changes discarded if I didn't "win" the vote?
What testing would I have to do to satisfy the Ant community that my code
was clean enough to implement?
Or should I develop an entirely new task with the intent of deprecating
<input> and replacing it with my 'better' task (assuming I can get it to
work ;-)?
By the way, is this the right list for these sorts of questions or should I
be asking on the developers list?
Rhino
---
rhino1 AT sympatico DOT ca
"There are two ways of constructing a software design. One way is to make it
so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies. And the other way is to
make it so complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies." - C.A.R.
Hoare
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RE: Improving Tasks
Posted by Jeff Davidson <je...@shaw.ca>.
I think this page should answer all your questions:
http://jakarta.apache.org/site/getinvolved.html
Check out the "Contribute Code or Documentation Patches" section, in
particular.
Regards,
~Jeff
-----Original Message-----
From: Rhino [mailto:rhino1@sympatico.ca]
Sent: Friday, October 22, 2004 6:36 AM
To: ant-user
Subject: Improving Tasks
I'm starting to get the hang of Ant now and am starting to think about
developing some tasks to increase what it can do.
However, before I start developing entirely new tasks, I thought I might
take a whack at improving a few existing tasks. One improvement I'm thinking
about involves the core task <input>. I'd like to enhance it in a couple of
ways:
1. Provide for a masked input field so that it could be used to prompt for a
password that would remain unreadable to anyone looking over the users
shoulder. (I envision adding a 'mask="true"' parameter to make that possible
with the default for 'mask' being 'false'.)
2. I'm thinking about adding the capability of having a radio button group
and/or drop down lists so that there are some additional ways for users to
provide input.
The problem here is that I haven't any real idea how to go about this. How
would I get my hands on the source code for the existing task without
stepping on anyone's toes? Would my enhancements have to be approved in
advance or would I submit them and then go through some kind of voting
process by Ant users with my changes discarded if I didn't "win" the vote?
What testing would I have to do to satisfy the Ant community that my code
was clean enough to implement?
Or should I develop an entirely new task with the intent of deprecating
<input> and replacing it with my 'better' task (assuming I can get it to
work ;-)?
By the way, is this the right list for these sorts of questions or should I
be asking on the developers list?
Rhino
---
rhino1 AT sympatico DOT ca
"There are two ways of constructing a software design. One way is to make it
so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies. And the other way is to
make it so complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies." - C.A.R.
Hoare
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