What build system to use?

Question

Java

There is a project that uses another project as a dependency and collects everything through ant. What to do if now 2 or more people are working on the project and sometimes the main project has no up-to-date version in the dependencies. If you can describe a little more in detail what I should do. I’m also looking in the direction of ant ivy, since it will take a long time to translate the project to maven ...

Answer 1

Write a script that will download the latest version of the dependency and start compiling?)

Answer 2

I recommend Gradle. Benefits:
1) Dependency management.
2) The ability to write plugins in different languages ​​in a fairly simple way.
3) Pre-existing good plugin infrastructure.
4) If you really need it, you can safely hack the buildscript in the way that is more convenient. Maven doesn't allow it. In this case, the main part of the assembly remains declarative.

Answer 3

+1 to Aleksey , it's easier to move from ant to gradle - some procedurality and freedom are preserved.
But expect that you will have to enter well enough, it will take time.