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Apache Maven 1.0 Released
darthcamaro writes "internetnews.com is running a story on the release of Apache Maven 1.0 this week. Maven is a very robust project-management and project comprehension tool that is unparalleled in either open source or proprietary software. 'Maven has a long history of pushing out beta after beta, so this is definitely an important release,' Jason Van Zyl, Maven architect release manager, told internetnews.com. 'For users it means that they will have something reliable now for their production builds.' From some of the comments that Van Zyl makes in the story though, it look like the upcoming 2.0 version will be the real killer app, though 1.0 is certainly nothing to sneeze at either..."
And how can a site for a software product not have screenshots showing off its functionality? That's the real question.
So I have to install it on one of my servers just so I can see what the interface looks like? Give me a break...
Casual Games/Downloads
I would imagine there are a lot of people (like me) who had *no idea* what this is or what it is for. Here is the one paragraph definition of it FTA:
:(
"Maven defines itself as a project-management and project-comprehension tool. Its project object model (POM) controls the development and management of a project. The POM controls builds, document creation, site publication and distribution publication and can be stored in an XML file. Maven also provides a set of tools to enable developers to automatically generate a number of critical items, such as source metrics; mailing, developer and dependency lists; software development process documentation; change logs based directly on source repository; and source cross-references."
In other words, it looks like a cross between the head cheese coding despot on any development project mailinglist and an automated webmaster thingee.... a management worker bot whatever.. it's a....
I still don't know what it is
That could win the best-FUD-of-the-year award. Full of scathing remarks, but nary an actual hard fact in sight.
-Malloc
___________________ I want to be free()!
Aside from that, I know that Maven reads from an xml based config file that's in the project directory.
Ha!
Jakarta has been running for years and is without a doubt the most important open source project in the Java world (and one of the more important anywhere). And it's part of Apache.
Apache is not just a webserver and it hasn't been for a looooong time.
---- Den ene knappen er powerknapp, den andre er Bender voice knapp "Bite My Shiny Metal Ass"
Did that weblog actually contain any substance? It doesn't say a thing about WHY this person doesn't like Maven, it just criticizes the people that code and maintain it. It doesn't even really criticize them, as much as call them names.
Give me a concrete reason why Maven isn't worth using... This weblog doesn't do that.
For the record, I am well aware of Maven's shortcomings - the draconian 'one size fits all' approach to some aspects of the build system. While I don't agree that 'one size fits all', I DO believe that Maven fits many, many projects quite nicely.
If you work in a shop obsessed with process management (CMM, CMMi, ISO900x, and even some 'agile' stuff), if you work with Java, and/or if you just want a no-hassle build system that gives you a bunch of stuff 'boiler-plate', check it out.
Love it or hate it, form your own opinion and be 'in the know'. Maven is not going away anytime soon. (And it is NOT an Ant replacement.)
-db
Not everyone seems to be fond of Maven. This guy lists both pros and cons with Maven, but lands on the negative side.
I havent used Maven myself, but since this was mostly a very positive announcement, I guess it cant hurt to point to another point of view.
I've only used Maven in the way that it has been part of projects that I've downloaded.
Something that gives me reservations is the way that it manages library dependencies by downloading them into the project tree. On a Unix system this feels inconsistent because I prefer to manage installed software (libraries) on a system-wide basis.
It would be nice if there were a consensus on Java library dependency resolution/installation. I used to use the exellent jpackage.org on Mandrake, but now I appreciate the source compilation aspect of Gentoo (although many of Gentoo's Java packages are old). A combination of the two would be ideal.
And whilst I'm forming a wishlist, I'd also like Java applications to have greater integration with the system, not on the desktop, but in the way that multiple invocations might have less of a memory penalty (like a Java subsystem).
- Brian.
Gantt Project
It's similar enough to Microsoft Project. Gantt Charts have been a project management standard for almost 100 years.
Linux, Mac OS X, Windows. It's Java, so take yer pick. GPL'd too.
My father is a blogger.
Maven is like Ant on steroid.
Great. This is just what the world needs. Ant has something like 100 different tags with like 10 attributes to each of those. Creating large projects with Ant becomes a huge task of managing xml errors while trying to get the damn thing to build something. Now lets add some complication! People will love this. Eat it right up!
Someone really needs to build a better make. Make a better make. Whatever. If your one of those wacky open source coders who dont have a project to waste your time on this planet behind a computer than this is a project for you!
Maven is not a general purpose Java build system, so i doubt it will ever overtake Ant's popularity.
The main problem is that it can only build projects with certain very rigid structures, it also has a number of features that should never be part of a build system at all, such as documentation generation and repository management. None of these extra functions it does particularly well.
For example if you want a shared jar repository - it would be quite simple to come up with something more sophisticated that Maven in few lines of an Ant script.
The documentation generation functionality didn't require a new alternative build system to be created.
The underlying problem is that Maven was never designed as a general purpose system, it grew out of a custom system designed for the Jakarta project, which is open source Java project consisting of a number of dependent jar libraries. The main goal of Maven is to manage the dependencies between these libraries and build the Jakarta documentation sites.
If your project is similar to the Jakarta project then you might find it useful, otherwise i would steer clear.