Les Hazlewood has an objective summary of why he eventually decided Maven is a better solution than Ant + Ivy. This is an evolution in thought process that we, Sonatype, often see in enterprises, and Les has two blog entries that illustrate this evolution perfectly.
Maven 2 vs Ant+Ivy: Our selection process: This entry gives Les' original perspective on Maven and the process by which he originally decided to choose Ant + Ivy.
Maven 2 vs Ant+Ivy: Revisited: This entry gives Les' new perspective and why his enterprise team, and the Apache Shiro project, have chosen Maven.
I now believe Maven 2 is a better build and project management tool than Ant+Ivy. I was wrong.
Yep, I said it. I'm man enough to admit when I've made mistakes and learned from my experiences. And this is coming from the guy who wrote a (still popular) OnJava article for Ant in the enterprise.
Overall, life with Maven is good. I'm glad that I swallowed my pride, gave it a chance, and reaped the benefits. I haven't used Ant in over a year since switching, nor have I ever felt the need to go back.
We hope this perspective helps potential enterprises save time when looking for a build and release infrastructure.
Jason is a co-founder and the former CTO of Sonatype.
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