> Why would you want to figure out the dependencies without executing script?
Originally, the whole point of using configuration files for builds was to eliminate the programmatic element where you used lots of little scripts to run builds. Config files are easy to read and reason about.
> Programmatic configuration allows e.g. specify some library version once (e.g. springVersion) and use it for 10 dependencies as a variable
Declarative syntax can also include variables which can't be reassigned to later.
Gradle's original marketing message was based around its syntax, i.e. Apache Groovy being easier to read than XML, which is true. But providing the programmatic ability of Groovy as well is a step backwards for configuration best practice, ultimately resulting in an increase in technical debt. Thankfully, almost all the Gradle build scripts out there are simple 20-liners which don't use programmatic logic.
Gradle ought to follow the example of Jenkins pipelines, which later provided a Declarative Syntax as an alternative to Groovy to mitigate this very issue.
Originally, the whole point of using configuration files for builds was to eliminate the programmatic element where you used lots of little scripts to run builds. Config files are easy to read and reason about.
> Programmatic configuration allows e.g. specify some library version once (e.g. springVersion) and use it for 10 dependencies as a variable
Declarative syntax can also include variables which can't be reassigned to later.
Gradle's original marketing message was based around its syntax, i.e. Apache Groovy being easier to read than XML, which is true. But providing the programmatic ability of Groovy as well is a step backwards for configuration best practice, ultimately resulting in an increase in technical debt. Thankfully, almost all the Gradle build scripts out there are simple 20-liners which don't use programmatic logic.
Gradle ought to follow the example of Jenkins pipelines, which later provided a Declarative Syntax as an alternative to Groovy to mitigate this very issue.