Java package distribution conventions

[Sheldon Hearn]

Hi folks,

I see that it's something of a convention for open source Java package
distributions to include all dependency JAR files.

I can kinda see how this makes sense in terms of ease of deployment, but
it's wasteful.  I already have 27 copies of 15 flavours of ant.jar on my
box!

Do we already have a policy on handling this?

There seem to be two current approaches.  Some ports install
into $PREFIX/share/java/classes, while others just install into
$PREFIX/$DISTNAME.

Approaches I can think of:

1) Ideal
========

The ideal solution is to have Java ports that only install the target
package's JARs, and properly establish dependencies.  This is how I'd
like to do my ports.

Obviously, that takes a LOT of work, and others may not be willing.

2) Status Quo
=============

Perhaps the current system (port maintainers get to choose one of the
two current approaches for each port) is good enough?

If so, I'd at least like USE_JAVA to imply PREFIX=${JAVA_PREFIX}
where the default would be JAVA_PREFIX?=${LOCALBASE} for backward
compatibility or JAVA_PREFIX?=${LOCALBASE}/java for tidiness.

Opinions?

Ciao,
Sheldon.