Eclipse plugin to simplify defining Ant build.xml?

D

davout

Is there an Eclipse R3 GUI plugin to help simplify the definition of Ant
build.xml content?
 
W

Wald

davout said:
Is there an Eclipse R3 GUI plugin to help simplify the definition of Ant
build.xml content?

Before asking, always check http://eclipse-plugins.info, they've got a
fairly good index of available plugins.

This sounds like it is exactly what you are looking for:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/antbuildcreator/

However, I'd suggest to still learn Ant syntax, it's not that difficult and
gives you the power to do *lots* of things in an efficient way.

Regards,
Wald
 
D

davout

Many thanks for the pointer...

As somebody who is a recent adopter of Java technology (I'm a Windows/.Net
developer at heart) there are lots of things like Ant, Maven etc that I need
to get up to speed on. Given my background what I find particularly
frustrating is the Java world's reliance on command line tools like Ant. Has
nobody thought about the productivity issues this opens? Providing a
competent GUI to front end such tools can only benefit their adoption and
generally improve developer productivity. However, exchange this view with
a typical java-head and typically you get a high handed response that
pooh-poohs such considerations.
 
S

Steven J Sobol

davout said:
Many thanks for the pointer...

As somebody who is a recent adopter of Java technology (I'm a Windows/.Net
developer at heart) there are lots of things like Ant, Maven etc that I need
to get up to speed on. Given my background what I find particularly
frustrating is the Java world's reliance on command line tools like Ant. Has
nobody thought about the productivity issues this opens? Providing a
competent GUI to front end such tools can only benefit their adoption and
generally improve developer productivity.

Hasten adoption, sure. Improve developer productivity? Depends on the
developer. I find GUI tools useful for stuff like building GUI forms. For
things like Ant, I'd just as soon write a build.xml using Notepad.

YMMV of course.
However, exchange this view with
a typical java-head and typically you get a high handed response that
pooh-poohs such considerations.

I wouldn't do that - there are undoubtedly people who find GUIs for such
tasks easier to use; that doesn't mean they're clueless, or bad developers.
Different strokes...
 
K

kaeli

Many thanks for the pointer...

As somebody who is a recent adopter of Java technology (I'm a Windows/.Net
developer at heart) there are lots of things like Ant, Maven etc that I need
to get up to speed on. Given my background what I find particularly
frustrating is the Java world's reliance on command line tools like Ant. Has
nobody thought about the productivity issues this opens? Providing a
competent GUI to front end such tools can only benefit their adoption and
generally improve developer productivity.

That's why you buy decent software instead of using open source software.
Okay, maybe I'm bitter over the whole JasperReports nonsense. *grins* Sure
wish they'd buy me Crystal Reports...

Anywho...

JBuilder. So far, I like it, and I just started with it. Worlds better than
Eclipse, and they have a free "lite" version. I don't use Ant, but I saw Ant
tools in there. If you can afford the big, all bells and whistles version,
you get database and reporting (CR) tools.

So far, I have yet to use a single open source tool I liked, much less found
intuitive and easy to use. IME, people used to Unix and Linux like the open
source tools. People used to developing for Windows will never be happy with
them. My two cents, anyway, on 4 hours of sleep and hours of trying to find a
decent tutorial for JasperReports. I'm not bitter...

--
 
B

Bryce

As somebody who is a recent adopter of Java technology (I'm a Windows/.Net
developer at heart) there are lots of things like Ant, Maven etc that I need
to get up to speed on. Given my background what I find particularly
frustrating is the Java world's reliance on command line tools like Ant.

Actually, Ant helps automate what is normally manual activities. With
a single Ant script, you can compile, build jar files, deploy to
servers, check out from source control, control Tomcat, just to name a
few. And when you write your Ant script, a complex build can be
executed with a single command.
Has
nobody thought about the productivity issues this opens? Providing a
competent GUI to front end such tools can only benefit their adoption and
generally improve developer productivity.

You don't have to use Ant. most IDE's provide similar functionality.
Also, some IDE's will allow you to export your environment to an Ant
script.
However, exchange this view with
a typical java-head and typically you get a high handed response that
pooh-poohs such considerations.

I think when you boil it down, Ant really isn't that complex. Adding a
GUI or wizard like functionalies doesn't buy you much. You still have
to understand what you are doing, and sometimes its just easier to
type it in.

Also, after you build a few, you will most likely have a "template"
Ant script that you will reuse, changing just the build.properties,
etc... (that's kind of what Maven does. Takes the common Ant tasks and
reduces them to just setting some properties).
 

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