Java Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 5.6 In the event that you need the contents of the Messages window brought outside the
IDE—to print, to email, to log for future reference, to post details in a bug-tracking suite, and so on—
the Export to Text File feature will assist.
use, flexible, and platform independent. As such, IDEA relies on Ant to extend
the application building process beyond basic compilation. IDEA does much
more than just allow you to run Ant scripts: It provides close integration with Ant,
blending it seamlessly into the development process.
5.2.1
Introducing Ant
Although it isn't particularly difficult to learn, the language and syntax of Ant are
beyond the scope of this book. For those not familiar with this technology, we'll
present a brief introduction here so you can understand its relationship with
IDEA ; perhaps we'll also persuade you to investigate its details further. Manning
has published a book on the subject, Java Development with Ant , which provides all
the details on this popular development tool. You can also find additional infor-
mation on Ant at the official Ant web site, http://ant.apache.org.
The power of Ant
Ant is a Java command-line tool that uses an XML file to script the process of
compiling and packaging your code into a finished application, library, or other
end product. Ant is an ongoing project of the Apache Software Foundation. As
such, it has become the tool of choice for many open source projects including
Tomcat, the reference implementation of Sun's Java Servlet API .
If you're familiar with make , a tool originally developed for the UNIX environ-
ment, you already have a good background about what Ant is trying to accomplish.
 
 
 
 
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