Kasun Gajasinghe wrote:

> Hi Jörg, and Robert,
> 
>>> FWIW one unresolved challenge for linux distributions with the rise of
>>> bytecode languages (such as Java) is that compressed bytecodes are not
>>> binaries in the usual sense (platform dependent machine executable
>>> machine code). i know that it's a hard thing for the linux community
>>> to hear but it's about time that the community acknowledged that these
>>> languages are now mainstream and stop trying to force them into a
>>> inappropriate provisioning model.
> 
> So... what exactly are you suggesting? Switch in to using binaries
> instead of building from source paradigm?

For Java: Yes. Use flags are still useful for dropping optional deps. I 
recommended that already years ago.

>> To build Maven from source in Gentoo I wonder about the hen-and-egg
>> problem.
> 
> Yes. To Bootstrap maven, the work around for this is by: first
> generate ANT build.xml via `mvn ant:ant`. maven-bin will provide the
> mvn command in this case. Then patch that build.xml to the source.
> After that, ANT will take care of the building from source.
> 
> If any of you is interested, you are welcome to have a look at the
> proposal for Maven from source for Gentoo [1]. Feedback is much
> appreciated.
> 
> [1]
> 
[http://socghop.appspot.com/gsoc/proposal/review/google/gsoc2011/kasun_gajasinghe/1

One hint only: You might take a closer look at Tycho. That one replaces the 
default dependency mechanism with a DependencyResolver that reads the 
dependencies from the OSGi entries in the manifest and uses a complete 
different repo layout (more or less what you see, when you look into 
Eclipse's plugins directory). It might be possible to develop a solution 
that uses similar hooks into the Maven core - to resolve deps and to support 
a different repo layout. However, that requires a Gentoo-version of Maven 
...

- Jörg