Re: Task DSL

Steve,

On Wed, 2009-05-13 at 11:10 -0400, Steve Appling wrote:
> I'm still not sure that I understand the motivation to change from using
> createTask to the keyword style syntax.  I think this looks less like normal
> groovy code (which makes it harder to initially understand).  Perhaps I'm just
> ranting about DSLs in general, which are always a balance between convenience
> and ease of learning.

I agree with you on this one.

> That said, if you are going to use a keyword style syntax, I would prefer a
> keyword to create a new task that looked more like a verb - perhaps createTask
> or newTask.  I think the keyword task is confusingly close to the Project.task
> methods and Project.getTasks.  If I was going to the javadoc to try to
> understand what methods in project were available to me, I would find this
> confusing.

I have a very different view of language from you on this one.  I prefer
declaration to action so I prefer noun forms to verb forms for this sort
of thing.

> There is already a method to add actions to a task.  Why is the "<<" syntax
> needed?  It just seems like more non-obvious magic.  Could you not just use:
>     task hello.doLast { stuff to do }

<< is traditionally used in C++ and Groovy as an inserter, so append to
a list, etc.  Used in that context it is idiomatic.  Used simply to
replace a call of a method that doesn't have inserter semantics, it is
probably a bad thing to do.

[ . . . ]
--
Russel.
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