New thoughts on Build Mechanism!

ANT looks like default choice for any java project build. However we do see couple of disadvantages of using XML based scripting tool. The XML scripts have error-prone syntaxes as well as the declarative nature is not as sweet as any traditional programming languages.

So, what are the other alternatives available today?

1. Maven
Apache project. Maven is a software project management and comprehension tool. Based on the concept of a project object model (POM), Maven can manage a project's build, reporting and documentation from a central piece of information.

http://maven.apache.org/

2. Rake
Rake is task based (similar to ANT) build mechanism using Ruby. Though it does not have many pre-defined task as that of Ant, the people who already using ruby would find it more comfortable. Above all it provides plain english-like scripting syntaxes

3. Raven
This is infact based on Rake and uses Ruby scripting. To make the life of Java developers easier, Raven adds a set of predefined tasks that implement the most common needs for a Java build system, like compiling or resolving jar dependencies. Just like a library, but instead of being a set of classes and methods, it's a set of reusable tasks that are well-suited for Java builds.

Infact, Raven packaged with JRuby (a Ruby interpreter written in Java),

http://raven.rubyforge.org/

4. Antwrap

Invoking existing Ant tasks(defined in XML) along with Raven (ruby build scripts)

Antwrap is a Ruby library that can be used to invoke Ant tasks.Antwrap runs on both the native Ruby and the JRuby interpreters. Antwrap is compatible with Ant versions 1.5.4, 1.6.5 and 1.7.0. It lets you reuse all existing Ant tasks that have already been created, but with a much nicer syntax than XML. So, you could use Raven for everything that's already included and Antwrap when an existing Ant task does what you're looking for, all within the same script.

http://antwrap.rubyforge.org/


5. Buildr
Buildr is a build system for Java applications.It's an Apache Incubator project and completely overlaps with Raven and thus based on Ruby Rake.(on Ruby scripting)

Fast; Reliable; Full of Ruby; Easier Dependency Injection-build only what is changed; All Unit Test support;Library tasks equivalent to Ant- Anything you do with Ant can do with Buildr.

http://incubator.apache.org/buildr/

Is Buildr future of Java Builds?