Ant and Maven projects are dead to me :-)

Gradle is the way forward and so much better.  (Plus it could support native 
C/C++ as well.)

I know Maven is an Apache project, but quite frankly I agree 100% with this:

http://nealford.com/memeagora/2013/01/22/why_everyone_eventually_hates_maven.html
 
<http://nealford.com/memeagora/2013/01/22/why_everyone_eventually_hates_maven.html>

Ant becomes awkward very quickly, and leaves you in XML hell.  Maven, just 
doesn’t cut it for anything other than very simple straight-forward, plain Java 
projects with almost trivial build requirements.  Anything more and you spend 
more time fighting it trying to bend it to do what you need - it is too rigid 
to conform to real-world project requirements without significant pain, most of 
the time.  It is also extremely verbose, awkward to configure compared to 
Gradle.

I haven’t made an Ant-based or Maven-based project in years.  Most of the time 
I come across a Maven-based project my first step is to convert it to Gradle so 
I can work pain free. (Not always easy, but always worth it if I need to spend 
any time on the project.)

Anyway, more to the point.  I fully agree that Ant based projects should not be 
the default at this stage - almost nobody uses Ant anymore.

So +1 from me, even though I have learned to hate Maven with a passion.

A Maven default would be an improvement, Gradle would be even better, but I 
understand that likely isn’t going to happen in the near term.  At least Maven 
projects share a common default source code layout with Gradle.

I would have to think about Christian’s proposal to have a wizard where the 
build tool is just one part of the project setup, and not the necessarily the 
first step.

Regards,

Scott


> On Nov 24, 2018, at 4:30 AM, Jean-Marc Borer <[email protected]> wrote:
> 
> Hi all,
> 
> I fuly agree, Ant projects are dead for me. I only use NB Maven projects 
> since several years now and even if in the beginning the transition was not 
> always easy when it came to customs builds, now you can do everything you 
> need with Maven projects as you could with Ant AFAIK.
> 
> However, Ant project should still be kept for legacy projects and to run the 
> examples you find in books dedicated to NB.
> 
> Finally, I would really vote to make the move from Ant to Maven to build 
> Netbeans itself. We then no longer need no use and maintain the 
> nam-repository-plugin.
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> JM Borer 
> 
>> On 24 Nov 2018, at 08:53, Jaroslav Tulach <[email protected]> wrote:
>> 
>> Hi guys,
>> the Apache NetBeans release 10 is (almost) finished and ready for download. 
>> Time to look forward: Long live Apache NetBeans - the UI for Apache Maven!
>> 
>> NetBeans is known for its excellent Maven support. Time to bring it to new 
>> level - time to lead all NetBeans newbies directly into Maven hands:
>> 
>> Whenever one creates new Java project from scratch a Maven project should be 
>> created.
>> 
>> Currently the default project type is Ant based, but as Jesse Glick (the 
>> author of the Ant based projects integration) once asked: "Is anybody still 
>> using that!?" That is the question! Newcomers use it, but otherwise it is 
>> useless dead end road. Starting new Ant based project in a year 2018 is a 
>> nonsence!
>> 
>> The current duality of Ant/Maven project support also wastes precious 
>> NetBeans 
>> development resources - features are usually implemented for Ant based 
>> projects first and only then ported to Maven. That's misfocused and upside 
>> down. 
>> 
>> Let's make the switch and offer Maven projects by default. Maven is well 
>> suited for the task: it is standard, well adopted build system. Maven comes 
>> with project archetypes that will serve as great starting templates for our 
>> newly generated project. 
>> 
>> What will change? Not the code, but the presentation: When one invokes "New 
>> Project" in NetBeans 11, there should be:
>> 
>> Java:
>> - Java Application
>> - Java Frontend Application
>> - Project from Archetype
>> - POM Project
>> - NetBeans Application
>> 
>> Ant(ic)/Java:
>> - Java Free-Form Project
>> - Java Modular Project
>> - Java Project with Existing Sources
>> - Java Class Library
>> - Java Application
>> 
>> Ant(ic)/JavaFX:
>> - JavaFX Application
>> - JavaFX Preloader
>> - JavaFX FXML Application
>> - JavaFX in Swing Application
>> - JavaFX Project with Existing Sources
>> 
>> Ant(ic)/NetBeans Modules:
>> - Module
>> - Module Suite
>> - Library Wrapper Module
>> - NetBeans Platform Application
>> 
>> PHP:
>> // unchanged
>> 
>> HTML5/JavaScript:
>> // unchanged
>> 
>> 
>> The "Java" category will offer only Maven based projects. I hope this change 
>> will be welcomed by NetBeans as well as Maven supporters and will help 
>> Apache 
>> NetBeans to move forward and focus on support of technology that matters!
>> 
>> Best regards and thanks in advance for your support.
>> Jaroslav Tulach
>> NetBeans founder & initial architect
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
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> 
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