Product DescriptionAnt is the premiere build management tool for use in Java environments. Unlike traditional build management tools such as GNU Make, Ant is itself written in Java, is platform independent, and interfaces well with the utilities in Sun's Java software development kit (SDK). In addition to being platform independent, Ant is also independent of the integrated development environment (IDE) being used. IDE independence is important for open source projects (or other projects) in which the various developers might use different IDEs. Using Ant, Java developers can:
Define build chunks, the results that they must produce, and the dependencies between them
Automatically retrieve source code from source control systems such as PVCS
Build applications by having Ant compile the necessary source files in the proper order
Ant build files are written using XML-a well-established standard-so programmers using Ant are not required to learn yet another scripting language. They will likely already know XML, and will be able to leverage that knowledge. Ant is an open source project, and part of the Jakarta project. Jakarta is Sun's open source reference implementation for the JSP and Servlets specifications, and is part of the Apache group's work
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - Definitive? I'm not so sure.
This book is basically a rehash of the product docs that come with Ant. There are some examples included, but for the most part, there isn't any information in this book that can't be gleemed from the documentation.
If you are someone that likes to printed examples available, then this book will be useful. The examples seemed to be fairly well formed and complete (although not all the complex topics are covered in adequate detail).
Ohterwise, if you are looking for a Ant reference that ... Read More
Rating: - Just What I Needed
I learned something on page 2 -- ANT stands for Another Neat Tool. I was surprised, I always thought ANT was a pretty dull tool. To be sure, every time I wanted it to do something I could eventually get it to do it. (Actually I went and got help from the guru.) That reached a point where I got handed this book and told to go away.
First, of course, I turned to the index, looked up what I wanted to do, went to the proper page and it didn't make any sense at all.
Rating: - Lacks code examples for a definitive guide
This book is good if you have no idea what Ant is about. The book lacks creative code examples, and doesn't explore many things that Ant is capable of doing. The book should be called "Ant the Definitive Introduction". I think the Ant Developer's Guide does a better job of touching into the depth of Ant's capability. However, the book would be very good for an Ant newbie.
Rating: - Great book if your NEW to Ant.
I really scratch my heads these days on the book reviews hence I'm writing this one. I have this book AND the Manning Ant book.
This book does a great job of teaching you basic fundamentals and how the pieces work. So as an example the other book which is over 600 pages talks about DataTypes BEFORE talking about properties. This book talks about properties FIRST which is a much better progession of complexity IMHO.
This book has some typos. There was also a typo in the Apendix ... Read More
Rating: - great book - needs a little better reference section
this is a great book for getting your knowledge past the basics in ant, but i don't think it is the best reference. use this book to learn ant and use online help for reference.
- Definitive? I'm not so sure.
- Just What I Needed
- great book - needs a little better reference section
