In your quest for the perfect build automation tool, you have probably come across Maven and Gradle – the two big players in the field. The decision here is no less tricky than picking just the right ingredients for that awesome holiday dish you might be thinking about preparing. Of course, each tool has its advantages and downsides, depending on your needs. Thus, let’s consider their features, as well as certain aspect you should have in mind before deciding in favor of one or the other. We’ve gone through some articles on the subject and have picked a few for your consideration.
The Differences, the Similarities – How to Choose?
Angela Stringfellow in her blog, for instance, explains what Gradle and Maven are, before going into their characteristics, ranging from such differences as the language they are based on, to similarities (their goals, multi-purpose builds, etc.). Code examples are provided as well. Since both tools have their own advantages and disadvantages, Srtingfellow offers a guide on how to choose one over the other.
Hendrik Ebbers also explains what these build automation tools are in his article and then proceeds to highlight the pitfalls and the positive sides of each (with some very detailed examples, as well as code samples). There is a piece of good news: both share the approach towards resolving dependencies, among some other features. Ebbers goes on to point out that it is possible to capitalize on the benefits of either tool, however, by having a combination, similar to what gulp has to offer. No matter the choice, though, it is a good idea to use such tools in the first place, as he concludes.
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Nobody and Nothing is Perfect!
Further insight is provided by Baeldung in his blog, in which he includes yet another Java build automation tool, Apache Ant, in case you are curious about that one. But back to our two contenders, he points out that while both work with plugins, Maven has “ built-in support for dependency management”, while Gradle boasts “smaller configuration files” which results in a less cluttered work environment (with Groovy, specific domain issues are solved). Despite Maven’s popularity, Gradle is gaining ground in “more complex codebases”.
It All Depends
The Gradle vs Maven war is set to go down in the same way as Vim vs Emacs – the better tool really depends on your needs. The Gradle folks themselves have their own comparative document, with this one being focused on performance. Being newer, a number of articles exist to help you move from Maven to Gradle, most centering around the Gradle’s in-built ability to convert a Maven POM to corresponding Gradle build files. Though moving the other way, from Gradle to Maven, doesn’t seem to be a popular topic. Whatever you choose, you can use either Maven or Gradle in our MyEclipse IDE for an amazing full-stack experience.