JLDAP README out of date

[Jon Roberts <jon@jonanddeb.net>]

I went to rebuild JLDAP from CVS source today and got some surprises 
which are not reflected in the docs. First, ant no longer comes with the 
distribution. That's fine by me since I'd prefer to use a local version, 
but it totally invalidates the README build instructions.

The other concern is more problematic. Apparently the relatively new 
DsmlConnection class and util.HttpRequestCallback interface require 
classes from the external libraries org.apache.commons.httpclient and 
org.apache.commons.httpclient.methods. These are not listed as 
dependencies, yet without these external libraries JLDAP will not build 
under given targets.

I know I should expect documentation to lag development and I could 
simply remove these classes to get a working build (I did), but I 
question this direction. Is it desirable for the core JLDAP libraries to 
accumulate dependencies on external libraries outside those in J2SE? Why 
can't this extended functionality instead be part of a separate 
distribution? At the very least, I would appreciate a build target that 
ignores this vestigial code.

I know the right thing to do is to post ITS reports and patches to this 
effect, which I will do, but I wanted to pose the philosophical question 
here first because I would prefer to see a self-contained JLDAP. It is, 
after all, the fundamental dependency for my current work. On the other 
hand, if there is no concern for scoping JLDAP I have a boatload of 
working code to accomplish a number of particular and extraneous tasks 
that I'd be happy to contribute myself!

Jon Roberts
www.mentata.com