Hayhurst, Matthew wrote:
It depends on your definition of extend. Every time you write a perl module or a .net assembly you're effectively extending the language. Task libraries are nants extension mechanism its just that they happen to be implemented in some .net language rather than in nants build format. In the same way you can write extension libraries for xslt but you probably wouldn't want to write c# for most of the things that xslt is good at.I'm just thinking out loud, so excuse me if this sounds utterlysure they are, but then aren't c# method calls just abstracted il ? Perl and Python and ruby are both implemented in C therefore they are just abstractions of C code. The fact that all these things are true is missing the point.
stupid, but
why use XML for build scripts? I realise XML helps to a certain degree with
portability, but surely a NAnt build script can only be as portable as the
tasks it uses... all of which are written in C#, making them inherently
portable anyway. So aren't all these XML elements ultimately just abstracted
C# method calls?
A nant build file is a (mostly) declarative format ie you describe inputs to a task rather than write code to do it - kinda like how you define a UI in xaml rather then using code to define the interface.
C#, perl, etc etc, are all standardised languages that today do not get 'extended' very often.
Also, I don't code in IL because C#/MC++ wrapno - you code in c# because its at a higher level of abstraction - its nicer for a programmer to use. A higher level of abstraction also often means a narrower focus ie a tool for a specific job - xslt for document transformations, nant for build files. Obviously the tool thats at a lower level of abstraction will be capable of performing the same tasks but generally in a more verbose and less focused manner
enough of the functionality of IL that I require. I like the idea of a
build
script written in C# that is interrogated/run by some Nant utility. Thissure - more people know C than have proficiency with makefiles and autotools - does that mean that C would be better than makefiles as a build format for building C apps - I personally don't think so.
gives you intellisense, Ndoc comments on methods etc etc etc and could
make the whole experience much nicer (FAR more people know C# than the
format of a Nant build file).
As I said previously - by all means prove me wrong by implementing a c# language build tool.
Ian
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