winning the case for ANT 2004-10-19 - By Woodchuck
hihi,
i would not say ant is an easy-at-first tool to use. you have to
install and set it up correctly. then you have to learn ant's syntax
and so on.
depending on what you want to do, your build script could be done in 5
minutes, or occupy a week's (or more) worth of time to finally get it
perfect.
one of the things that make it difficult in my opinion is that it is
*too* flexible. for any particular task, you will find many different
ways to accomplish the same thing. you can go about the task in a
round-about way, or if luck is kind to you, find a task that does it in
one line of code.
learning ant is a mixed bag. the only common denominator is it's basic
execution sequence/structure, after that all bets are off.
however, ant is a useful tool. and the pain of getting the perfect
build script, i can say from my experience, is worth the satisfaction
you get (especially if your build is complicated -- which is usually
the case of anything that is a challenge).
anyhow, just my 2 cents
woodchuck
--- jfuller@(protected) wrote:
> a few additional 1p comments;
>
> Ant is a 'disruptive' tool e.g. many developers can quickly get on
> with their work using the tool whilst the declaritive format makes
> composition trivial; hands up for those who have spent hours
> plastering make builds together...PERL and make vie for the low
> scanability award...though this doesnt mean that Ant doesnt also
> suffer from low readibility...there are whole groups of developers
> who find XML an impenetrable format...I am not of that group.
>
> IF a project is big enough in scope its quite common for no one tool
> to solve the build problem...this might be a 'warm body' problem
> which means u need to take the ready skills of those around you...or
> perhaps there are many complicated problem domains; politics
> aside...why not just use both Ant and make? note: Anthill pro
> integrates these two nicely btw
>
> In development teams, democracy tends to rule...which I would beware
> of;
>
> 3 alternate analagies of teams working together are;
>
> Chief Surgeon: One or few highly talented individuals with
> specialists
>
> Football (variations being real or american): Team approach, with
> medium level of skill throughout the pitch...with the coach as
> manager. Success is built on team playing well together though
> directed by management.
>
> another variation of Football is the;
>
> Orchestra: Sequencing and coordination of a group of highly talented
> individuals performed by conductor
>
> If your man is the 'coach', 'surgeon' or 'conductor' I would listen
> to him/her...otherwise if u think productivity will be limited by Ant
> let em use Make locally...its easy enough to invoke in Ant.
>
> Ant is wickedly useful outside of the context of building
> software.....one measurement of a tools usefulness and applicability
> is the extent to which it can be ab/used to solve problems
> quickly...this confuses matters appreciably.
>
> gl,jim fuller
>
> >
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