I started using Maven about a month ago, just to see what all the fuss was about. There is a lot to it, and it can be overwhelming. But there is a good middle ground between roll-your-own-ant and Maven, and it's called Javagen Ant Modules (JAM) and it's here [javagen.com].
What I got from JAM that is useful to me:
dependency management automatically downloads library JARs for me during build.
common build.xml file and framework, so all my Maven projects have same basic structure.
Reduced learning curve so I could get going without learning everything about Maven all at once.
access to lots of cool Maven "plugins" like maven-eclipse that integrate the whole thing into my Eclipse3.0 [eclipse.org] setup.
But there is a good middle ground between roll-your-own-ant and Maven, and it's called Javagen Ant Modules (JAM)...
That's very bad news, because the open-source build tool "jam" [perforce.com] already exists and has been around for a very long time. And it's really good too.
People really ought to google a bit before picking names for their project tools. Sure, names can often be reused without conflict, but here both jam's are program build tools, and that's just plain short-sighted.
You see but you do not observe.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, in "The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes"
Check out JAM for Maven (Score:5, Informative)
What I got from JAM that is useful to me:
Ouch, not "JAM" ! Non Java-centric "jam" exists (Score:3, Informative)
That's very bad news, because the open-source build tool "jam" [perforce.com] already exists and has been around for a very long time. And it's really good too.
People really ought to google a bit before picking names for their project tools. Sure, names can often be reused without conflict, but here both jam's are program build tools, and that's just plain short-sighted.