Fix assembly of uber .jar

[dscho]

With this topic branch, the following strategy will produce the uber .jar:

he project needs to be built from identical revisions for all
platforms that need to be supported. Then, the

target/nar/<artifactId>-<version>-<aol>-jni/

directories need to be accumulated on one platform and a final mvn run
will produce the desired uber .jar file.

[dscho]

I have to admit that I am still not too much of a fan of bundling the libraries... I really think the better way would be to put the different .nar files on the class path and let the native-lib-loader do its job...

[dscho]

@ctrueden I have a hunch that you disagree and think that there is merit to producing these uber .jar files, so I invite you to chime in...

[ctrueden]

Now that the native-lib-loader can load native libraries from .nar files, I think that distribution mechanism is superior to uber JARs with multiple platforms, for all the reasons @dscho cited elsewhere (in particular: separation of concerns and avoiding library bloat). However, my architectural bias is to generalize things, so my preference would be for native-lib-loader to support both.

[dscho]

However, my architectural bias is to generalize things, so my preference would be for native-lib-loader to support both.

And it does already, because it looks anywhere in the class path, not just in the same .jar file.

[ctrueden]

And it does already

👍

[hkmoon]

It is SO beautiful. Thank you so much, @dscho and @ctrueden. Sooner or later, I would like to have nar's mechanism in Fiji in order to load nar packages. So, whenever some specific plugin needs FFT--natvie.nar, Fiji can import it on-the-fly and load it. Maybe, you guys already made it?

[ctrueden]

I would like to have nar's mechanism in Fiji in order to load nar packages.

@hkmoon It should be as simple as releasing a new native-lib-loader and uploading it to the Fiji update site, right @dscho?

[dscho]

Wehelll... In Fiji, what you should do, really, is to use the lib// mechanism to distribute unpacked libraries. Remember, there are problems with rpath that are not addressed by the native-lib-loader (and AFAICT cannot be, either).

Sooner or later, I would like to have nar's mechanism in Fiji in order to load nar packages.

Actually, the method I recommend is to address imagej/imagej-maven-plugin#4 and then use either the install-artifact or copy-jar goals of the imagej-maven-plugin to install the libraries correctly.