Fix/simplify the build scripting

[jawi]

The current build scripting is a bit complicated for new workspace setups. It should be made simpler to work out of the box.

Perhaps, use an alternative build tool, like Gradle or plain Ant/Ivy?

[wayoda]

Would that include merging all the 13+ source trees in the project into a single one?
I started to setup an eclipse environment for the project 2 times, but the layout of the sources is just akward to work with, at least for me.
I would really appreciate a more standard approach here. Paired with Ant as the build tool, users are also not forced to use Eclipse anymore. With the current layout you really don't want to use Emacs and type
c-x c-f ~/ols/device.logicsniffer/src/main/java/org/sump/device/logicsniffer/LogicSnifferDevice.java
c-x c-f ~/ols/device.generic/src/main/java/nl/lxtreme/ols/device/generic/GenericDevice.java
just to open two files (which should really not be 18 subdirs away from each other).

If you're going to switch the build tool, I would go for Ant.
It is stable, simple (complex if you want it to), very well documented.
It also has the biggest userbase, which raises the chance of contributions from other developers.
I had to google the other two options Gradle and Ivy.
This might say something about my expertise in the area of build tools, but the number links returned for

• java ant
• java gradle
• java ivy

also speak for Ant I think.

Eberhard

[jawi]

This issue is about the build scripting, not the project structure.

I've written quite a lot of Ant scripts and while it is a very powerful tool, it is also the one where you have to do everything yourself, which causes a lot of boilerplating. Ivy is a handy addition to Ant for handling the dependencies. However, both use XML which makes their scripts rather verbose and hard to debug/maintain. Tools like Gradle (and others as well) are quite new, but simplify the build scripting significantly. I have to see how easy it will become to use such tools instead of Maven, otherwise Ant will always be a good alternative...

JaWi