If I am correct, maven2 includes all optional transient dependencies by
default and you have to specify an <exclude> for each optional transient
dependency you do not want. This could potentially lead to many excludes.
It would be nice to have a flag to to turn off all optional transient
dependencies from being included by default for a specific dependency
(something like <excludeOptionalDependencies>) and then specify what you
want included rather than specify what you want excluded. IMO the optional
transient dependencies you want included would be easier to determine
because you usually know what optional dependencies you use, and if you
don't your compile or test cases will tell you.
--tom
