-For new users to Ant, welcome to a new way to build your software. -
-For veteran Ant users, its been, what nine months since Ant 1.4.1 -shipped, and we've been as busy enhancing it as you've been using it. -
- -We know you've been using Ant, not just from the all the bug reports we -see, but from the awards we've been getting from JavaWorld and SD Magazine -and from the fact that it is now clearly a mainstream product. Every quality IDE, -from the Open Source projects: Emacs, NetBeans, Eclipse, JEdit, to the -commercial offerings such as IntelliJ IDEA and JBuilder now have high -quality Ant integration either built in or available as a -download. And they do that not just because it improves their products, -giving users the best of both worlds -great editors and a great build -process, but because Java developers are starting to expect Ant (and -JUnit) everywhere. -
-Even in mid-2001, if you said you were using Ant in your project, people -would stare at you. Now, as long as you are talking with Java developers -and not management or your family and friends, people will nod, shrug -and maybe ask you questions about build file and Ant configurations. The good -news: Ant 1.5 includes more helpful error messages and a new --diagnostics command to look at your Ant installation and help work out why -things arent working. -
-Now, when you tell people you work on Ant in your spare time, -people used to give you very funny stares; now they ask you about how to -set up automated build processes, or deploy to some random app server. -The good news: Ant 1.5 makes it easier to answer those questions. - -The other sign of mainstream is that there are also books on the -subject, first Java Tools for Extreme Programming, then Ant: The -Definitive Guide, and the first Ant1.5 book, Java Development with Ant, -due to ship at the end of the month. (Steve says: I prefer the one with -my name on the cover as co-author, but I'm biased). -As usual, the manual has improved too: -regardless of whether you need a book to work with Ant or not, you need -that on-line documentation. And as usual, any extra contributions to the -docs are welcome indeed. -
-Ant has also influenced how projects are built. Now when you download -any open source project, or work with a closed source team, you expect -to see a file called build.xml there. Equally important, you expect that -build file to compile and run a set of tests using JUnit or a derivative -thereof; if they are missing, you worry. -
-Together, Ant and JUnit have transformed the mainstream process for -building and deploying Java projects. And that's pretty profound, when -you think about it. What is equally impressive is that this was all done -as a co-operative effort. Nobody works on Ant full-time; everybody uses -it to solve their problems, to address their build crises and generally -get something done in a hurry. It just so happens that the architectural -model of Java classes bound via introspection to the XML build file -makes it easy for people to add new tasks, extend existing ones and -generally ease their way into developing and extending Ant. It is the -users that have helped Ant become the success it is today, and will keep -it that way tomorrow. -
-
-So, what is new in Ant1.5? Lots of stuff. You will have to look at the -whatsnew file to see, but basically the changes -fall into a number of categories -
-Thanks, -
-The Ant development team. -
-PS: many thanks for Magesh to being the build manager for this release! -He has been busy since Feb/March organizing it. Magesh -you are so good -at this you should do it next time too :) - - -- cgit v1.2.3