<package name="ant" project="SUSE:SLE-15-SP2:Update">

  <title>Antlr Task for ant</title>

  <description>Apache Ant is a Java-based build tool. In theory, it is kind of like

Make, but without Make's wrinkles.

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Why another build tool when there is already make, gnumake, nmake, jam,

and others? Because all those tools have limitations that Ant's

original author could not live with when developing software across

multiple platforms. Make-like tools are inherently shell-based--they

evaluate a set of dependencies then execute commands, not unlike what

you would issue in a shell. This means that you can easily extend these

tools by using or writing any program for the OS that you are working

on. However, this also means that you limit yourself to the OS, or at

least the OS type, such as Unix, that you are working on.

​

Makefiles are inherently evil as well. Anybody who has worked on them

for any time has run into the dreaded tab problem. "Is my command not

executing because I have a space in front of my tab???" said the

original author of Ant way too many times. Tools like Jam took care of

this to a great degree, but still have yet another format to use and

remember.

​

Ant is different. Instead of a model where it is extended with

shell-based commands, Ant is extended using Java classes. Instead of

writing shell commands, the configuration files are XML-based, calling

out a target tree where various tasks are executed. Each task is run by

an object that implements a particular task interface.

​

Granted, this removes some of the expressive power that is inherent by

being able to construct a shell command such as `find . -name foo -exec

rm {}`, but it gives you the ability to be cross-platform--to work

anywhere and everywhere. If you really need to execute a shell command,

Ant has an <exec> task that allows different commands to be executed

based on the OS used.</description>

</package>

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