On 8/29/06, Attila Mezei-Horvati <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
At my company we used ant to do the build files. We decided to switch to maven because we heard that it is better than ant, integrated with CI tools and it can build the documentation site/reports etc. I spent two weeks so far to move the build and I still am far from the goal. Sometimes I wonder if it worths the effort. Documentation is bad, the only way to get responses is through this group (thanks to Tamas and Chris and all others). There is no way from the command line for a plugin to tell what configuration options you have or what goals. There is supposed to be a site generated with info but that is most of the time useless. Help:describe is another tool but its not telling much either.
It gives the list of mojos and all of their parameters, but you must use the "-Dfull" parameter. Anything what needs twisting or customizing is like
hitting a brick wall. The readmes and start docs are good for somebody who starts now and all it wants is a simple project. Anything complex and you are lost. I kind of expect that if I keep up working and reading about it, in a year I will be able to use it. :) Its a long learning curve. Too long. So my points: 1. no docs 2. cannot tell what plugins are available and what are their configuration/goal options 3. learning curve is too big.
Actually, I agree with your (and everyone elses) sentiment on the learning curve issue. I have been watching the list lately and have began compiling a list of FAQs for documenting purposes. I love the Mergere book, and it serves a purpose, however, I think that many users would be well servered by a book more along the lines of "Rails Recipies". Just a laundry list of: "How do I do X? Here's how you do X..." I've began brainstorming on my little private wiki, if you care to peek: http://www.propellors.net/wiki/index.php?title=Maven_Recipes As a note, i read both about maven 1 and maven 2.
Maven 2 almost seems a step backwards. Maven 1 I think was easier to use and customize. Oh, and setting up dependencies is a pain. For our project it took me a whole day (like 10 hours) to hunt down all the jar-s and then many of them I needed to install manually because I couldn't find. I had all the jars I needed right there in a folder. Why I couldn't just set the dependencies to that folder beats me. I know its nice to let Maven handle the dependencies, but still. Its easier to download the jar you need and go from there. To me, this dependency stuff (specially that we use certain versions so no update coming on them) was just a waste of time.
To play the aplogist: In all fairness, this isn't really Maven's fault. Dependency structures are kind of a pain. If you have a jar of dependencies, then you can install/deploy them all and use them again and again for all projects. This is only a one-time pain, usually felt when first converting a project. But in that case I agree, we do need better (any?) tools to help convert existing projects into Maven. Well, I hope I didn't hurt feelings. It was not my
intention. I am still trying to make maven work... :) Attila > Sent: Tuesday, August 29, 2006 10:55 AM > To: Maven Users List > Subject: [POLL] Why switch to Maven? > > Hi all Maven users! > > I'm beginning a study to outline the real reasons > that people have for > avoiding Maven. My questions to you all are: > What were your anxieties about using Maven? If you > use Maven: what > helped > you make the decision? If you don't: why did you > avoid it? > > Here are some that I have heard in the past: > > * Lack of good documentation. > * Community unwilling to help me with my problems. > * Not "industry supported" or "mainstream" enough. > * I don't like conforming to the Maven project > layout. > * My project is too complex to switch. > * There are not enough plugins available. > * We already have a large investement in tool X. > * I have to build native/non-Java code. > > Any more reasons? Care to expand these ideas? > Thanks for your help! > ____ > Eric Redmond > http://codehaus.org/~eredmond __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
