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> Therefore, packages must depends on gcj|jikes|... and
> have lots of code to determine which is being used.
My java packages tend to build-depend on just one of these compilers, since
unfortunately the compilers are not all as compatible as you'd like them to
be, and furthermore they all provide different sets of core classes and have
different bugs, and often there's only one compiler available that I *know*
will build the package correctly. So I build-depend on gcj-3.2 or whatever,
tailor the build process to that specific compiler and then I at least have
the comfort of knowing that any build should work without errors and produce
a correct binary, and I don't have to do any juggling to find out which
compiler is being used.
(Well, for a while libreadline-java did a bit of juggling because it was
arch-dependent and no one compiler was available for enough archs, but I've
recently changed that build to use gcj-3.2 only, which is now available for
all of the archs I had before).
> Would it not be better to say that packages providing java-compiler must
> provide javac, which in turn must provide features x, y and z.
This is probably a good idea; it's nice for packages like jython which call
javac at runtime, i.e., on the user's machine (not the build machine), in
which case you don't want to force the user into using any specific compiler.
> Then
> there could be a simple build-depend on java-compiler and use of javac
> throughout the build.
I still like to err on the side of overly-specific with my build-depends and
force a specific compiler at build time, because I want to be sure that the
package will always build correctly from source regardless of what the
/usr/bin/javac alternative is set to. But that's just my personal
preference.
Ben.
- --
Ben Burton
[EMAIL PROTECTED] | [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Public Key: finger [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Bad artists always admire each others work.
- Oscar Wilde
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