Ant (with Python extensions) good replacement for distutils?

[seberino]

I know distutils well but don't know anything about Ant except that it
is a build
tool from Apache project.

Could it possible be better or as good as distutils?
(There are extensions for Python.)

Chris

 

[Diez B. Roggisch]

I know distutils well but don't know anything about Ant except that it
is a build
tool from Apache project.

Could it possible be better or as good as distutils?
(There are extensions for Python.)

No way. Ant sucks. Big-time. I actually enhance it with embedded jython
to get at least _some_ flexibility.

Diez

 

[Steve Christensen]

I know distutils well but don't know anything about Ant except that it
is a build tool from Apache project.

Could it possible be better or as good as distutils?
(There are extensions for Python.)

Ant is... ugh. If you're doing Java, it's definitely the choice since
it's got so much infrastructure built around it.

But, if you are investigating software builds, look at (one or all) of
the following:

SCons <http://www.scons.org>

Boost Build <http://www.boost.org/tools/build/v1/>
and
<http://www.boost.org/tools/build/v2/>

A-A-P <http://www.a-a-p.org>


-Steve

 

[Cameron Laird]

No way. Ant sucks. Big-time. I actually enhance it with embedded jython
to get at least _some_ flexibility.

Diez

<URL: http://www.testing.com/blog/misc/ant.txt >

 

[Michael Schneider]

I would vote against ant because java must be installed to run it.


The bootstrap install should be very simple. If you make python usage
dependent on:

1) download java
2) install java
3) add java to path
4) download ant
5) install ant
6) add ant to path
7) download ptyhon
8) install python
9) add python to path
10) download package
11) run ant to install package

just food for thought,
Mike

 

[Neil Benn]

I know distutils well but don't know anything about Ant except that it
is a build
tool from Apache project.

Could it possible be better or as good as distutils?
(There are extensions for Python.)

Chris

Hello,

In my Java code I use ant extensively to organise files, run
code, unit testing, upload war files, make my setup executables
(commercial app with a single click install kinda thing), tag in my
source repos, etc. For this it is excellent, using it for Python; I
don't think it will fly. There is a lot of handy stuff that is there in
ant for Java and Java programmers can easily add in extra ant tasks if
they have something custom they wish to. In addition getting an
open-source community to accept anything written in Python is an uphill
battle - not worth the grief <make way for Captain Toungue-In-Cheek>!!

Anyways, I see a lot of requests on the ant mailing where people try
to extend ant fast what it was designed for - this is the source of the
majority of the complaints about ant. Here's a good link that I refer
to when I find myself swearing about ant being inflexible or clunky:

http://ant.apache.org/ant_in_anger.html

However anyone up for Maven?? This is a build tool with a different
philosophy than most others.

Cheers,

Neil

--

Neil Benn
Senior Automation Engineer
Cenix BioScience
BioInnovations Zentrum
Tatzberg 46
D-01307
Dresden
Germany

Tel : +49 (0)351 4173 154
e-mail : (e-mail address removed)
Cenix Website : http://www.cenix-bioscience.com

 

[B Mahoney]

No way. Ant sucks. Big-time. I actually enhance it with embedded jython
Any pointers to this enhancement?