This is getting rather frustrating. I was going to use "_" (the underscore) until someone sent me a note saying that AntContrib doesn't like properties with that in its name (especially with its foreach task). To be honest I don't care to relay on AntContrib but sometimes <foreach> really is a life-saver.
Since I'm trying to create what is in essence a namespace for property names (and not having much luck doing it), I wonder if this is something that Ant should support naively, much like it does with target names and import. Or perhaps it's a scoping issue, and not a namespace issue: I want properties which are private to a particular build file. Someone else pointed out <local>, which I've been using in targets and macrodefs (and it's awesome). I didn't even think it could be used outside of those blocks, but the documentation does say Note that using the Local task at the global level effectively makes the property local to the "anonymous target" in which top-level operations are carried out; it will not be defined for other targets in the buildfile. So I can use it in the top-level but it's not defined to targets and macrodefs inside that buildfile? It's close but not enough for what I'm trying to accomplish. I think I really have no choice but to use "." as it's the only character guaranteed to work in Ant, various extensions and tools, property files, and command lines--unless someone has a better choice? What do others do with very large, reusable build "suites" broken into multiple separate build files? (Beside switching tools, of course. :-) Sorry for griping. Ant 1.8 has been a revelation to me and I've been able to do so much more with so little I should have no reason to complain... Thanks, Rich On Tue, Feb 1, 2011 at 1:07 PM, Steele, Richard <r...@steelezone.net> wrote: > This pretty much confirms that I shouldn't be using ":" in my property > names. (If I once knew that ":" could be used in property files, I don't > remember it.) > > Thanks, > Rich > > > On Tue, Feb 1, 2011 at 10:41 AM, Stephen Connolly < > stephen.alan.conno...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> Damn you Peter, you beat me to the punch! >> >> On 1 February 2011 14:41, Peter Reilly <peter.kitt.rei...@gmail.com> >> wrote: >> > : and = and ' ' are used to separate the key from value in java property >> files. >> > so, not a good thing to use in property values. >> > >> > Peter >> > >> > >> > On Tue, Feb 1, 2011 at 2:37 PM, Vimil Saju <vimils...@yahoo.com> wrote: >> >> you're nuts, don't use : in property names! :P >> >> >> >> --- On Tue, 2/1/11, Steele, Richard <r...@steelezone.net> wrote: >> >> >> >>> From: Steele, Richard <r...@steelezone.net> >> >>> Subject: Wisdom of using ":" in property name >> >>> To: user@ant.apache.org >> >>> Date: Tuesday, February 1, 2011, 5:53 AM >> >>> For better or for worse, I'm using >> >>> ":" as a separator character in my >> >>> property names as part of a set of reusable build >> >>> files. The part before >> >>> the ":" indicates which build file the property is defined >> >>> in. >> >>> >> >>> I've come across at least one incompatibility doing this, >> >>> however, and that >> >>> is with the Bundlor tool (from SpringSource) for generating >> >>> OSGi manifests. >> >>> The issue appears to be that Bundlor uses the ":" character >> >>> for its own >> >>> purposes and is getting confused by my property naming >> >>> convention. I'm >> >>> faced with several choices: >> >>> >> >>> 1. Use something other than Bundlor, like bnd. >> >>> 2. Work around or patch Bundlor to make it work with my >> >>> property naming >> >>> convention. >> >>> 3. Use some other naming convention (or none at all). >> >>> >> >>> None of these choices are all that appealing, but if the >> >>> Ant community says >> >>> something like "you're nuts, don't use : in property names" >> >>> that will >> >>> obviously push me towards #3. >> >>> >> >>> (If you're curious, I chose ":" both because the obvious >> >>> choice of "." >> >>> wasn't distinct enough from many built-in property names, >> >>> and because I also >> >>> use ":" in my target names.) >> >>> >> >>> Thanks, >> >>> Rich >> >>> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> --------------------------------------------------------------------- >> >> To unsubscribe, e-mail: user-unsubscr...@ant.apache.org >> >> For additional commands, e-mail: user-h...@ant.apache.org >> >> >> >> >> > >> > --------------------------------------------------------------------- >> > To unsubscribe, e-mail: user-unsubscr...@ant.apache.org >> > For additional commands, e-mail: user-h...@ant.apache.org >> > >> > >> >> --------------------------------------------------------------------- >> To unsubscribe, e-mail: user-unsubscr...@ant.apache.org >> For additional commands, e-mail: user-h...@ant.apache.org >> >> >
