Description: Over the past few years, I have become dependent on Apache Ant to manage the process of building my Java projects. I find this tool indispensable when I need to package large amounts of code and other resources into an easily deployed archive. No tool has come to my attention that comes close to Ant's cross-platform ability to search directories for files that match specific patterns, compile these files, and accumulate the results into an efficient archive. As my projects have become more intricate, however, the complexity of translating the logic of my builds into XML has become daunting. I still need the Ant classes, but I require more control over program flow and build customization than Ant offers.
