Well, I think I can see what belongs in the Ant script. When I ask Eclipse to export the script, it already defines properties that identify the location of various resources. For example, I also have a linked source folder, where certain source code is outside of the workspace directory tree. When eclipse generates the script it includes the following reference to that directory.
<property name=”src.link” value=”../../../../../apps/SpatialAge/src”/>
Then when compiling, copying to the bin folder, etc. the script intelligently uses ${src.link} to reference the source files.
The same approach should be used for references to my ThirdParty folder. The script need only define a property like:
<property name=”ThirdParty.location” value=”../../../../../apps/SpatialAge/ThirdParty”/>
and then when it references the jars, include references such as {ThirdParty.location}/servlet.jar.
If the product can correctly handle linked source folders, why not handle regular folders with the same mechanism?