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diff --git a/framework/src/ant/apache-ant-1.9.6/manual/intro.html b/framework/src/ant/apache-ant-1.9.6/manual/intro.html new file mode 100644 index 00000000..e5673ed7 --- /dev/null +++ b/framework/src/ant/apache-ant-1.9.6/manual/intro.html @@ -0,0 +1,69 @@ +<!-- + Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more + contributor license agreements. See the NOTICE file distributed with + this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership. + The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0 + (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with + the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at + + http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0 + + Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software + distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, + WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. + See the License for the specific language governing permissions and + limitations under the License. +--> +<html> + +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Language" content="en-us"> +<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="stylesheets/style.css"> +<title>Apache Ant User Manual - Introduction</title> +</head> + +<body> +<h1><a name="introduction">Introduction</a></h1> +<p>Apache Ant is a Java-based build tool. In theory, it is kind of like +<i>make</i>, without <i>make</i>'s wrinkles.</p> +<h3>Why?</h3> +<p>Why another build tool when there is already +<i>make</i>, +<i>gnumake</i>, +<i>nmake</i>, +<i>jam</i>, +and +others? Because all those tools have limitations that Ant's original author +couldn't live with when developing software across multiple platforms. +Make-like +tools are inherently shell-based: they evaluate a set of dependencies, +then execute commands not unlike what you would issue on a shell. +This means that you +can easily extend these tools by using or writing any program for the OS that +you are working on; however, this also means that you limit yourself to the OS, +or at least the OS type, such as Unix, that you are working on.</p> +<p>Makefiles are inherently evil as well. Anybody who has worked on them for any +time has run into the dreaded tab problem. "Is my command not executing +because I have a space in front of my tab?!!" said the original author of +Ant way too many times. Tools like Jam took care of this to a great degree, but +still have yet another format to use and remember.</p> +<p>Ant is different. Instead of a model where it is extended with shell-based +commands, Ant is extended using Java classes. Instead of writing shell commands, +the configuration files are XML-based, calling out a target tree where various +tasks get executed. Each task is run by an object that implements a particular +Task interface.</p> +<p>Granted, this removes some of the expressive power that is inherent in being +able to construct a shell command such as +<nobr><code>`find . -name foo -exec rm {}`</code></nobr>, but it +gives you the ability to be cross-platform--to work anywhere and +everywhere. And +hey, if you really need to execute a shell command, Ant has an +<code><exec></code> task that +allows different commands to be executed based on the OS it is executing +on.</p> + + + +</body> +</html> + |