Author/s : Steve Loughran, Erik Hatcher
Publisher : Manning
Category : Project management, Process and Best Practices
Review by : Jeanne Boyarsky
Rating : 8 horseshoes
"Ant in Action" is really the second edition of "Java Development in Ant." I think the original title was more descriptive as the book focuses more on process, tools and techniques than most
Ant books. For example, they introduce continuous integration and why you would want to write
unit tests. Not that the Ant coverage isn't good -- it's excellent -- just that the book is so much more.
Like most Ant books the authors don't rehash the excellent online manual and API. For those new to Ant, features are clearly described with good examples and good descriptions of "what happens if _____." The flow diagrams helped visualize concepts nicely.
For those who have been using Ant, there are margin notes about what was added in 1.6/1.7 along with coverage of Ivy. I liked the
Java 6/JEE 5 examples. The techniques for writing reusable/maintainable code and extending Ant provided significant value. I was a little disappointed it used
JUnit 3.8. The authors explained why and I understand. I still would have liked to see it as this book will still be used when JUnit 4 is in wider use.
Coverage of related tools is also useful. It's good to know what libraries to look into to increase productivity with Ant. I've been using Ant for complex builds for three years and still had a page of take away points from this book. I recommend it for the valuable information and techniques.
More info at Amazon.com
More info at Amazon.co.uk