title: Create SWT Maven project without having to provide platform specific SWT binaries
body: <p>I'm trying to build a (nearly) platform independent SWT Maven archetype to build SWT applications out of. It should automatically download the needed SWT libraries depending on the platform. This is my pom so far:</p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
      xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd"&gt;
      &lt;modelVersion&gt;4.0.0&lt;/modelVersion&gt;
      &lt;groupId&gt;de.mackaz&lt;/groupId&gt;
      &lt;artifactId&gt;swttest&lt;/artifactId&gt;
      &lt;version&gt;0.0.1-SNAPSHOT&lt;/version&gt;
  
      &lt;properties&gt;
          &lt;project.build.sourceEncoding&gt;UTF-8&lt;/project.build.sourceEncoding&gt;
          &lt;swt.version&gt;3.7&lt;/swt.version&gt;
      &lt;/properties&gt;
  
      &lt;dependencies&gt;
          &lt;dependency&gt;
              &lt;groupId&gt;${swt.groupId}&lt;/groupId&gt;
              &lt;artifactId&gt;${swt.artifactId}&lt;/artifactId&gt;
              &lt;version&gt;${swt.version}&lt;/version&gt;
          &lt;/dependency&gt;
      &lt;/dependencies&gt;
  
      &lt;build&gt;
          &lt;plugins&gt;
              &lt;plugin&gt;
                  &lt;groupId&gt;org.apache.maven.plugins&lt;/groupId&gt;
                  &lt;artifactId&gt;maven-compiler-plugin&lt;/artifactId&gt;
                  &lt;configuration&gt;
                      &lt;source&gt;1.6&lt;/source&gt;
                      &lt;target&gt;1.6&lt;/target&gt;
                      &lt;debug&gt;true&lt;/debug&gt;
                  &lt;/configuration&gt;
              &lt;/plugin&gt;
          &lt;/plugins&gt;
      &lt;/build&gt;
  
      &lt;profiles&gt;
          &lt;profile&gt;
              &lt;id&gt;mac&lt;/id&gt;
              &lt;activation&gt;
                  &lt;os&gt;
                      &lt;name&gt;mac os x&lt;/name&gt;
                  &lt;/os&gt;
              &lt;/activation&gt;
              &lt;properties&gt;
                  &lt;swt.groupId&gt;org.eclipse.swt.carbon&lt;/swt.groupId&gt;
                  &lt;swt.artifactId&gt;macosx&lt;/swt.artifactId&gt;
              &lt;/properties&gt;
          &lt;/profile&gt;
          &lt;profile&gt;
              &lt;id&gt;windows&lt;/id&gt;
              &lt;activation&gt;
                  &lt;os&gt;
                      &lt;family&gt;windows&lt;/family&gt;
                  &lt;/os&gt;
              &lt;/activation&gt;
              &lt;properties&gt;
                  &lt;swt.groupId&gt;org.eclipse.swt.win32.win32&lt;/swt.groupId&gt;
                  &lt;swt.artifactId&gt;x86&lt;/swt.artifactId&gt;
              &lt;/properties&gt;
          &lt;/profile&gt;
          &lt;profile&gt;
              &lt;id&gt;linux&lt;/id&gt;
              &lt;activation&gt;
                  &lt;os&gt;
                      &lt;family&gt;linux&lt;/family&gt;
                  &lt;/os&gt;
              &lt;/activation&gt;
              &lt;properties&gt;
                  &lt;swt.groupId&gt;org.eclipse.swt.gtk.linux&lt;/swt.groupId&gt;
                  &lt;swt.artifactId&gt;x86_64&lt;/swt.artifactId&gt;
              &lt;/properties&gt;
          &lt;/profile&gt;
      &lt;/profiles&gt;
  &lt;/project&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I just learned that there seems to be <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/5096299/maven-project-swt-3-5-dependency-any-official-public-repo">NO official Maven repository for SWT</a> (why???). 
  Since I don't want to provide the SWT Jars for all platforms together with my archetype, I want to write a little script which downloads the right library automatically.</p>
  
  <p>But now I have the next problem: is there a reliable source where I can download the platform specific SWT jars? When trying to download them from eclipse.org, you don't get any permanent and reliable links.
  What are the best practices to distribute an SWT Maven project without having to provide the  platform specific SWT binaries?</p>
  
  <p><strong>EDIT:</strong></p>
  
  <p>Additional info to this problem after some research:</p>
  
  <p>There seems to be a related Issue, which exists since 3.4:<br/>
  <a href="https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=199302" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=199302</a></p>
  
  <p>Also, there is an Eclipse Forum entry where somebody asks for a Maven Repo:<br/>
  <a href="http://www.eclipse.org/forums/index.php/m/526969/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">http://www.eclipse.org/forums/index.php/m/526969/</a></p>
  
  <p>And I also posted a (quite redundant) Forum entry about this:<br/>
  <a href="http://www.eclipse.org/forums/index.php/t/215253/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">http://www.eclipse.org/forums/index.php/t/215253/</a></p>
  
  <p>So no solution yet (but I'm open for alternative solutions)</p>