Re: [gentoo-java] Re: Maven from source - version 2.x or 3.x ?

[Robert Burrell Donkin <robertburrelldonkin@gmail.com>]

On Thu, May 26, 2011 at 10:06 AM, Kasun Gajasinghe <kasunbg@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi Jörg, and Robert,
>
>>> FWIW one unresolved challenge for linux distributions with the rise of
>>> bytecode languages (such as Java) is that compressed bytecodes are not
>>> binaries in the usual sense (platform dependent machine executable
>>> machine code). i know that it's a hard thing for the linux community
>>> to hear but it's about time that the community acknowledged that these
>>> languages are now mainstream and stop trying to force them into a
>>> inappropriate provisioning model.
>
> So... what exactly are you suggesting? Switch in to using binaries
> instead of building from source paradigm?

i love the "build-from-source" paradigm but dependencies for languages
such as Java are distributed as compressed intermediate bytecode
source not binaries. bytecode dependencies work quite differently from
the libraries used by directly compiled languages. building
applications in a reliable and reproducable way for bytecode languages
requires provisioning libraries in native source form (ie. bytecode).

it's time to start working with these new languages rather than try to
fight them by forcing them to fit into inappropriate structures.

>> To build Maven from source in Gentoo I wonder about the hen-and-egg problem.
>
> Yes. To Bootstrap maven, the work around for this is by: first
> generate ANT build.xml via `mvn ant:ant`. maven-bin will provide the
> mvn command in this case. Then patch that build.xml to the source.
> After that, ANT will take care of the building from source.

not very reliable :-/

- robert