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Re: ANT vs Maven?

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markspace wrote:
> Steve wrote:
>> I've traditionally used ANT [sic].
> 
>> My last project put into dependency hell, which learning enough Maven to
>> get the right set of JAR files bailed me out of.
>>
>> I've learned that there is a "Maven Plugin" for ANT, as well as
>> something called Ivy to give ANT the ability to manage dependencies like
>> Maven.
> 
>> I HATE the directory structure Maven makes me use.
> 
> You might also look at Apache Ivy, which seems to be a lighter-weight 
> version of Maven.  I just used it for the first time today, and it's 
> downloading a bunch of dependencies for me right now.  Looks good!  But 
> I don't know anything about it, really.
> 
> My general perception of the Java ecosystem though is that Maven is just 
> plain going to be required for some projects, even if you hate it. 
> Ant+Ivy seems like it might be an alternative for projects you control.
> 
> http://ant.apache.org/ivy/

I'll have to investigate Ivy, thank you.

Ant and Maven each have their own species of hell caused by abuse of the tool.

I worked on a Maven-based Java EE project a couple of years or so ago. We had a lot 
of frameworks to manage, and many of them were out of date when our predecessors 
had created the project, let alone when I joined. Some of the old versions were no longer 
available via the old Maven repositories, in versions compatible with the newer stuff we 
were adding at that point. Newer versions had different APIs and required heavy 
refactoring to fit into things. There were so many JARs, each with its own section in the 
build configuration, that used so many different versions of the same libraries (e.g., 
various ones from Apache Commons), that were hidden from us because Maven would 
simply decide which of what to acquire.

Mind you, that project would have been just as entangled with Ant, because all you can 
do is mirror that structure with the build tool. (Which BTW Maven did just fine - what are 
you on about?) But the entanglement would have been hidden in a maze of impenetrable 
XML instead of covertly managed by ghosts in the machine that required intensive 
exorcism.

-- 
Lew

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ANT vs Maven? Steve <tinker123@gmail.com> - 2013-02-16 15:09 -0500
  Re: ANT vs Maven? Roedy Green <see_website@mindprod.com.invalid> - 2013-02-16 12:47 -0800
  Re: ANT vs Maven? markspace <markspace@nospam.nospam> - 2013-02-16 15:42 -0800
    Re: ANT vs Maven? Lew <lewbloch@gmail.com> - 2013-02-16 17:42 -0800
      Re: ANT vs Maven? markspace <markspace@nospam.nospam> - 2013-02-16 18:06 -0800
        Re: ANT vs Maven? eric@invalid.com (EricF) - 2013-02-17 05:01 +0000

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