Ant: The Definitive Guide: Complete Build Management for Java

by Steven Holzner

Soon after its launch, Ant succeeded in taking the Java world by storm, becoming the most widely used tool for building applications in Java environments. Like most popular technologies, Ant quickly went through a series of early revision cycles. With each new version, more functionality was added, and more complexity was introduced. Ant evolved from a simple-to-learn build tool into a full-fledged testing and deployment environment.Ant: The Definitive Guide has been reworked, revised and expanded upon to reflect this evolution. It documents the new ways that Ant is being applied, as well as the array of optional tasks that Ant supports. In fact, this new second edition covers everything about this extraordinary build management tool from downloading and installing, to using Ant to test code. Here are just of a few of the features you'll find detailed in this comprehensive, must-have guide:


Developing conditional builds, and handling error conditions
Automatically retrieving source code from version control systems
Using Ant with XML files
Using Ant with JavaServer Pages to build Web applications
Using Ant with Enterprise JavaBeans to build enterprise applications
Far exceeding its predecessor in terms of information and detail, Ant: The Definitive Guide, 2nd Edition is a must-have for Java developers unfamiliar with the latest advancements in Ant technology. With this book at your side, you'll soon be up to speed on the premiere tool for cross-platform development.Author Steve Holzner is an award-winning author who s been writing about Java topics since the language first appeared; his books have sold more than 1.5 million copies worldwide.

Genres: Programming, Computer Science, Reference, Technology

336 pages, ebook

First published January 1, 2002

Reviews

[Linda · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ant is a java build tool that has pretty much become the standard way to build java applications. I've dabbled in it but figured a bit of immersion therapy would be useful.

The book covers version 1.6.1 and 1.7.0 is the current version. Fortunately, the amount of change is relatively minor. It's a decent book that goes into ant starting from a basic level and progressing to a moderate level of detail, I wouldn't call it "definitive". It is worthwhile, but it hardly goes into the kind of advanced usage that the word "definitive" implies to me.

However, if you aren't an ant expert, it is a worthwhile read. If you are already very comfortable with ant, it probably has little to add.

[David Workman · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is quite a dry book for a dry subject.

Overall, the book does do a fairly effective job of disseminating the information required, but it does tend to come across mostly as 'the Ant Manual' and doesn't do much more than the Ant documentation pages.

This also means that it has been supplanted by these documentation pages as this book covers a version of Ant that has been superseded by a later version.

While this was probably a useful information resource when Ant 1.7 was the latest version, it is now outdated and is no more useful than the online documentation.

[Sri Thiyagarajan]

It is good experience