When it comes to open source technology, you’re on your own as soon as you download and install the product. The most challenging part has to be figuring out how to configure your new toy. There is always that infamous README file, but let’s face it, it does not get us as far as we would like to go. Lucky for all of us beginners to Ant, it is self-explanatory, and easy to work with. Not only that, but there are countless examples available on the web, and the book to get us started.
Reading “Ant, The Definitive Guide” by Jesse Tilly & Eric M. Burke, is like having one of them beside you. The book carefully walks you through the steps required to write your first buildfile. From there, more complex ideas and approaches are introduced to the entire build process. Naturally, one should be well adapted to the Unix/DOS command line before jumping into the book. Trying to do it any other way is not as obvious.
The authors build structure is straightforward. First, there is the standard directory structure of BIN/DOC/LIB, and so forth. This consistency with the rest of the industries makes learning the process that much easier. With changes constantly taking place in programming environments, having a buildfile to generate your executables and keeping your documentation up-to-date is quite nice. I started with the authors’ samples, and have modified them to fit my working environment. In doing so, I am keeping to the standards in used by the Java community, and I know that is a great plus down the road.
The book is well organized and very intuitive. For the starting Java programmer, this is a tool that will get you far. Don’t forget that documentation is key to good programming, and it will save you down the road when you have to figure out what’s going on with that line of code.
Unfortunately, there isn’t much involved in building an Ant file. Once you have the necessary components in place, it is a matter of renaming them for your next project. The book is short, and it covers enough to get you where you need to be. One half of the book is dedicated to various parameters that can be incorporated into your buildfile. This is handy, but for the beginners, it can be overwhelming. For the most part, you can obtain the instructions provided in the first half of the book by searching the web, but you won’t have the step-by-step guidance that is provided by Tilly and Burke.
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