Generator generates out-of-date projects

[MaxDeVos]

It would appear the generator has fallen behind the rest of the ecosystem. Generated project skeletons now differ considerably from the reference examples, both in toolchain version and in content.

The following is a list of versions of various toolchain components/dependencies as they are generated (per ab2f6b3), and what they need to be updated to in order to match the examples (per 92813eb):

• Language version: 11 -> 17
• Bundled Gradle version: 7.6 -> 8.2.1
• Ignition SDK version (per the root build.gradle.kts): 8.1.20 -> 8.3
• Gradle plugin io.ia.sdk.modl: 0.4.0 -> 0.1.1 (make sense of that one)

I also noticed a handful of other changes that have been applied to the samples, but omitted from the generator:

• In the example projects, settings.gradle files have been replaced with settings.gradle.kts files, but generated projects still use settings.gradle files
• In the example projects, a master list of version-referenced library references is declared in ~/gradle/libs.versions.toml, which are referenced by all subproject build.gradle.kts files (this is a great change, thanks). The generator didn't get the memo, so generated projects still resolve their maven dependency versions to the selected API version through string interpolation.
• Some new cleanup code is present at the bottom of the root project's build.gradle.kts that is absent in generated projects.

I am aware of the disclaimer associated with the generated regarding not leaning on the generator as a replacement for learning Gradle, but I think it's reasonable to expect that generated projects are structurally consistent with the reference examples.

[SpencerLommel]

@paul-griffith I've been thinking about taking on a task similar to this and upgrading the generator to support both 8.1 & 8.3 (probably via a CLI input during runtime) but I had two questions before I think about starting this:

1. This would probably be a pretty involved task so would you allow a non-IA member work on this or would you rather work on this in-house?

2. The generator hasn't really had any updates for 2 years and I personally just build all my 8.3 modules starting from an example. Does IA plan to keep supporting this generator or phase it out for a different method of project initialization?

[paul-griffith]

We haven't really had anyone with time to maintain the generator, but we'd be happy to accept contributions here. No idea when we'll be able to review it fully (for the same reason) but we'd be happy if you're able to offer something.