While parsing through dependencies for bundletools. Yesterday, on reviewing through the same I found a problem which is creating the conflict. The problem is that the upstream source package is moved from ws.antonov.gradle.plugins:gradle-plugin-protobuf:0.9.1 [2]
to com.google.protobuf:protobuf-gradle-plugin:0.8.8 [3].
I have opinions on Gradle. Specifically, I feel that the plugin infrastructure makes it very convenient for normal users but makes it rather unsuitable for Debian packaging. Or, at least, extraordinarily painful.
Therefore it is utter importance to update/switch to the latest upstream available. I'm ready to help with the update until unless someone is doing it, already.
Also, a quick question, what will be the most feasible manner for the update? To archive the existing obsolete package and packaging the new upstream source (as we have a new tag versioning) or just update on the top of the existing repository (I don't know how feasible it would be).
If you insist on using Gradle, I think that you should package the Google plugin separately. The names are already different so it may create some confusion (the least of the problems with Gradle) but it will not create a conflict. Putting essentially a different software package into an existing repository is a recipe for disaster, IMHO. Not to mention the discrepancy with version numbers. This way existing packages that use the old plugin can continue to do so and newer packages can use the newer plugin. I see no need to force an immediate transition.
-Olek