OpenJDK: using ant instead of make

[Andrew John Hughes]

On Thursday 16 August 2007 20:56, Ted Neward wrote:
> I don’t think anybody disagrees, in principle, with what you’re saying; in
> reality, though, that’s just adding one more thing to the long list of
> TODOs that the build team have in front of them, and I wouldn’t hold my
> breath waiting for it to happen. They need to complete the move to
> Mercurial first, for starters, before any kind of major surgery to the
> build process could even be contemplated.
>
>
>
> Now, if you wanted to take that on as a project of your own, I’m sure
> they’d love the help… :-)
>
>
>
> But realistically speaking, I don’t think the process is going to get much
> simpler by moving to Ant; with Make you configure your settings through
> environment variables, with Ant it’s through properties (either passed on
> the command-line or in a .properties file), but the same variables still
> need to be configured. I’m not sure switching to Ant makes it any simpler
> or easier (except for building from an IDE). I know that parts of the build
> are already IDE-friendly, as over on the compiler list they talk about a
> NetBeans-friendly build setup that seems to be working for people. (I
> haven’t tried it.)
>
>
>
> Ted Neward
>
> Java, .NET, XML Services
>
> Consulting, Teaching, Speaking, Writing
>
> HYPERLINK "http://www.tedneward.com"http://www.tedneward.com
>
>
>
> From: build-dev-bounces at openjdk.java.net
> [mailto:build-dev-bounces at openjdk.java.net] On Behalf Of Alexander Schunk
> Sent: Thursday, August 16, 2007 8:19 AM
> To: build-dev at openjdk.java.net
> Subject: OpenJDK: using ant instead of make
>
>
>
> Hi,
>
> i have tried to build openjdk on XP with the buildenv.bat used by Dan and
> my settings but i am missing the freetype lib from Igor so if anyone cand
> send me this lib i would feel great.
>
> Also I think it would be easier to build openjdk on windows if we use ant
> instead of make.
>
> The first obvious advantage ist that you can integrate it into an IDE and
> you only need to
>
> run the ant script.
>
> So besides improving the buildenv.bat i would suggest porting the make file
> to an ant skript for the windows plattform and i also was playing with the
> idea to set up a working environment for all XP plattforms.
>
> Currently every one needs to set up his own build environment until has has
> set the corresponding vars.
>
> I think it should be easier to have a programm or make it automatic to set
> these vars on every windows plattform. May be an installer like programm
> could do it using a wizard.
>
> - Alex
>
>
>
>
>
> No virus found in this incoming message.
> Checked by AVG Free Edition.
> Version: 7.5.476 / Virus Database: 269.11.19/955 - Release Date: 8/15/2007
> 4:55 PM
>
>
> No virus found in this outgoing message.
> Checked by AVG Free Edition.
> Version: 7.5.484 / Virus Database: 269.12.0/957 - Release Date: 8/16/2007
> 1:46 PM

I'd second what Ted says; as an external interested party who has been 
contributing to GNU Classpath I'd most like to see OpenJDK become a true FOSS 
project (i.e. writable source repository via Mercurial, open development 
process, etc.) before we start worrying about things as trivial as making the 
build process simpler.  Once that does occur, pretty much anyone could 
contribute such changes for consideration by all.

On the topic of Ant itself, it seems a bad idea to have building a Java VM 
dependent on a Java VM.  In addition, OpenJDK includes a lot of native code 
which I've not seen Ant deal with very gracefully.  If there is to be any 
switch from what's there at present, then building on top of the existing 
Makefiles with an autoconf system (to provide more sophisticated detection of 
external libraries such as Motif, etc.) would seem to be the way to go.

Thanks,
-- 
Andrew :-)

Help end the Java Trap!
Contribute to GNU Classpath and the OpenJDK
http://www.gnu.org/software/classpath
http://openjdk.java.net
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 189 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <https://mail.openjdk.org/pipermail/build-dev/attachments/20070816/4f7bfe45/attachment.sig>