Relying on jars, IMHO, is not bad, but it depends on your goals. The point of compiling from source is that it's a first step to actually being a developer which is why I do it. Compiling problems aren't problems for us new developers they are puzzles to solve to help people out.
If there are changes needed to the jars, we need to recompile. For a build where I don't modify the jar, I'd prefer to just fetch it b/c it's way faster. Also, where does compiling from source end. That is, we all rely on someone else's compiling some of our software (unless our name is Theo, I guess). :) Fred On Tue, Feb 12, 2013 at 7:28 PM, Ariel Constenla-Haile <arie...@apache.org> wrote: > Hi Michael, > > On Tue, Feb 12, 2013 at 09:59:02PM -0500, Michael Lam wrote: >> On 02/12/2013 12:01 AM, Ariel Constenla-Haile wrote: >> >On Mon, Feb 11, 2013 at 11:37:35PM -0500, Michael Lam wrote: >> >>I have updated the external_deps.lst with the updated hsqldb >> >>information. If someone can give me some pointer into how to just >> >>retrieve the jar instead of the source >> >You don't retrieve precompiled stuff. The logic is: >> > >> >a) don't include the dependency at all >> > >> >b) include the dependency >> > >> >b.1) build it from source >> > >> >b.2) use the precompiled version in the system (this switch is only for >> >external packagers, the builds are release with no system [configurable] >> >dependencies). >> > >> > >> >Regards >> I am still a little confused. Obviously it is possible to build from >> source but as a lot of email on the list have shown it could cause >> issues with the build that is not directly related to the AOO code. >> Why not just retrieve the jar so the build is inclusive? > > I don't know what motivated these rules, but I guess it was something in > the lines of having control about what is being compiled and how it is > being compiled (the use of the compiler, the Java base line, etc.). > > 35 million of downloads are worth not relaying on a jar built by someone > else and, instead, build it from sources. > > >> I am used to retrieving compiled jars on the projects I worked on, in >> Java there is maven and ivy to retrieve specific version of the jar >> that the project is tested on along with the dependencies. > > But it is still trusting in a binary built by someone else. Every > project is free to trust or build from sources. Historically, OpenOffice > builds from external sources and includes these binaries in its > releases, it has no external dependencies (other than the system > libraries). The configure switches that allow building with system > libraries/jars are only supported on *nix, and even there they are not > relaying on a jar built by someone else: Linux distributions, for > example, build all their jars; why do they build all by themselves > instead of fetching compiled jars? I've no idea, but I guess they follow > the same criteria mentioned above (as a Linux user you can use Maven in > your projects, but it won't modify the system's jars). > > > Regards > -- > Ariel Constenla-Haile > La Plata, Argentina
