Ant Vs Maven

Well this has been a highly debated topic among java developers. Some prefer ant while other maven. So what is the better build tool.

Imho i think both have their advantages and disadvantages. if you use ant

• your project directories are not predefined, therefore flexible. You can build the project in your own way.
• Unlike maven you do not need internet to work.
• Unlike maven there will be no conflicting jar downloads or broken dependencies since developer him/her self mentions adds the libraries.
• But you need to manage the dependencies of the dependencies which sometimes is a headache.
• Easy setup and usage.
• Not the best tool if the project is huge.
• Support for managing versions of dependencies and the project it self is not good.

Let's see the maven facts

• You can just put dependencies in the pom.xml file and maven will download it for you.
• You do not need to manage dependencies of dependencies, since maven automatically handles it.
• You can manage versions of the project, dependency versions easily.
• Good if the project is large.
• Project structure is not flexible. You will have to go with default maven structure.
• You have to have internet to work with.
• There may have broken dependencies.

yes as you see both has it's own advantages and disadvantages. However as a java developer I believe you need to learn both the build tools since the type of tool you need to work with will vary from project to project. In my case it's 50-50. So I wouldn't fancy only one build tool but both.