Don
Hubert Rabago wrote:
Obviously this discussion could go on for a while.
(I can share my experience with both styles as far as building Struts is concerned, but that will just add to the "ant is better" "no maven is better" exchange.)
Perhaps an acceptable approach would be to proceed with Maven (since this is where the volunteer time is going - a HUGE plus), but retain an Ant script that can be used for just building struts jars, for people who are just looking to run build the jars (for any reason whatsoever - customizing, testing patches, etc). The Ant scripts won't need to generate docs or build the website. Just build the jars and run some tests. I think such a script could be easier to maintain, and its corresponding properties file can be kept relatively simple and user-friendly.
This way, we can get the benefits of both worlds. All the benefits that Maven brings, and the ease and simplicity of Ant. Well, that'd be because both are present. If the Ant script ends up being too difficult to maintain, then it can be removed later. In the meantime, curious users and potential contributors won't have to be turned away by the "intimidating" Maven requirement.
Hubert
Joe Germuska wrote:
At 2:53 PM -0500 2/23/05, Frank W. Zammetti wrote:
An unsolicited outside comment...
If your intention is to continue to allow the general Struts user community to still be able to build Struts, I would suggest against Maven.
Maven strikes me as considerably more complex and intimidating than does Ant, even if that complexity might be justifiable because Maven is more powerful. I think there is a higher barrier to entry with Maven, and Ant is I think a more common and well-understood tool by most developers.
If this isn't so much a concern though, i.e., if you intend that for the most part only those interested in actively developing Struts should be building it from source, than by all means go with Maven.
It would however be unfortunate if the seemingly simple choice of a build tool discouraged contributions. I'm not saying this would be the case going with Maven, but I *would* be less concerned about this with Ant.
Have you used Maven? I understand that it has a lot of features (perhaps too many) and that it can be a bit slow off the mark, but you never have to modify a single file? I have seen few if any Ant-based projects which didn't require at least a bit of tweaking to a local build.properties file; on the other hand, most Maven projects "just work" if you have Maven installed.
I agree that we don't want to hamper usage by the general community; however, I feel that -- specifically with Struts -- we never had a particularly easy to use Ant build.
Joe
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