You¿ve heard about Extreme Programming. You might have read articles or books describing the XP process, but what next? How do you implement XP principles into an actual Java project? This unique book explains everything you need for XP development, starting with Ant, the popular Java build tool. The authors describe every stage of a real-world project life cycle¿testing, refactoring, versioning, deployment, and more¿with practical examples that you can immediately put to use in your own projects.
Every aspect of an XP project includes unique challenges, and Extreme Programming with Ant works through each step of the process.
Mitigate risks by creating spike tests with Ant buildfiles
Add version control and testing with JUnit
Automate nightly builds and reporting
Deploy applications dynamically using XDoclet
Add additional team members after a project is underway
Write custom Ant components to facilitate deployment
Adapt an XP process for use by other teams or across an enterprise
Throughout the book, the authors include dozens of ideas for extending Ant with useful custom features such as generating UML diagrams and creating reports and metrics on-the-fly. All code and examples have been built, tested, and deployed using Ant 1.5.3.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - Good book but no CD or download of example
Good book but no CD and can't find example buildfile online at samspublishing.com. Page 4 and Appendix D both say you should be able to download the examples.
Rating: - Not a book about XP
As the subtitle indicates, this is a tools book, not a process book. Consequently, the XP practices are merely used as a motivation to introduce new Ant features into the build process - and sometimes this feels rather far stretched. In many cases, a good XP team should try a more team- and less tool-oriented solution than presented in this book. Also, the repeatedly mentioned "lead developer" coming to important decisions by himself feels quite contrary to XPs "Whole Team" practice.
Rating: - Xtremely interesting
Pros: Nice writing style, clear and not boring, touches not only Ant but quite a few other open-source tools and the Xtreme programming ways... Cons: its vast breath is counterbalanced by little depth. Ant 's coverage is appropriate to get you started working with it quickly, and to have you appreciate what this tool can do for you. Forget about being able to work with JUnit or XDoclet just by reading this book. You will barely discover that they exist.. and expect a lot of painful hours spent ... Read More
Rating: - A great book on Ant and on using the XP processes in Java
Before I proceed further with the review, I should note that I am the co-author of Java Development with Ant, the book which has been the best selling book about Ant to date. Thus if I were critical of this book, you'd know where I was coming from.
But I am not going to be critical -I am going to say nice things about it, and give it 5 stars as anything else would be unfair. This is a really good introduction to Extreme Programming in Java using Ant, Junit and XDoclet.
Rating: - Extremely Useful Book for a Software Developer
This book is a "must-have" for anyone who will be leading a development project, in addition to being extremely useful for any developer. The extreme programming section is wonderful - it does a great job of explaining a very useful methodology for delivering a successful, on-time, within-budget project. The book also thoroughly explains each topic (such as using Ant for compilation, unit testing, etc) and gives plenty of examples so it's easy to understand. I would definitely use this book every step ... Read More
- Not a book about XP
- Xtremely interesting
- A great book on Ant and on using the XP processes in Java
