THE WHATIS.COM WORD-OF-THE-DAY January 9, 2003 Ant ______________ TODAY'S SPONSOR: Free Systems Management whitepapers
Download the key papers you need today to make better-informed decisions. Targeted categories include: Network Management, Security Management, Storage Management and Systems Management Tools. Click here to access the free SearchSystemsManagement.com white papers section: http://searchsystemsmanagement.techtarget.com/whitepapers3/0,,sid20,00.html ______________ TODAY'S WORD: Ant See our complete definition with hyperlinks at http://searchsolaris.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid12_gci873167,00.html Ant is an open source build tool (a program for putting together all the pieces of a program) from the Apache Software Foundation. The utility is the most commonly used build tool for programs written in Java. Although similar to the GNU make utility that it replaces, Ant is said to be more portable and simpler to use. Unlike many other build tools, Ant is independent of both platform and development environment. Make (the most common build tool) and most alternatives are based on a particular shell or command interface, and for that reason are limited to the type of operating system that uses that shell. Ant uses Java classes rather than shell-based commands. Developers use XML to describe the modules in their program build, what those modules should do, and any dependencies between them and other parts of the program. Ant determines the parts of the program that have been changed since the last compilation, as well as any parts of the program that are dependent on those components, and then compiles only those parts that require it, in the proper order. Ant is part of Apache's Jakarta project. Software consultant James Duncan Davidson created Ant on a transatlantic flight in 1998. Davidson was working on a cross-platform program build and running into problems using available build tools, so he created his own. Davidson said he named the tool "Ant" because it is a little thing that can build big things. RELATED TERMS: open source http://searchsolaris.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid12_gci212709,00.html build http://searchvb.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid8_gci872640,00.html Java http://searchsolaris.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid12_gci212415,00.html shell http://searchsolaris.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid12_gci212978,00.html class http://searchvb.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid8_gci211790,00.html XML http://searchwebservices.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid26_gci213404,00.html ______________________ SELECTED LINKS: The Apache Jakarta Project provides more information about Ant. http://jakarta.apache.org/ant/ SearchSolaris.com offers a collection of Best Web Links for "General Java developers' resources." http://searchsolaris.techtarget.com/bestWebLinks/0,289521,sid12_tax1426,00.html O'Reilly offers a press release about a new book about Ant. http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/anttdg/ ______________________ QUIZ #24 | Web Services What do SOAP, XML, and UDDI have to do with Web Services? Take our quiz and expand your knowledge. http://searchwebservices.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid26_gci811081,00.html ______________________ Learning Path | Customer Relationship Management Give yourself a quick tutorial in customer relationship management (CRM) by reading our series of related definitions in sequence. http://searchcrm.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid11_gci788453,00.html ______________________ REAL-LIFE CHALLENGE | HTML spam Company Y is looking for a way to block HTML porn spam in Outlook. Can you advise? http://whatis.discussions.techtarget.com/WebX?[EMAIL PROTECTED]@.1dcfae0e/205!viewtype=threadDate&skip=&expand= ______________________________ RECENT ADDITIONS AND UPDATES [1] Real Application Cluster http://searchdatabase.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid13_gci871791,00.html [2] supplier relationship management http://searchsap.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid21_gci871756,00.html [3] angle symbol http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci871754,00.html [4] ASAP http://searchsap.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid21_gci871489,00.html [5] Online Service System http://searchsap.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid21_gci871202,00.html ____________________________________________________________________ ::::::::::::::::::: WHATIS.COM CONTACTS ::::::::::::::::::: LOWELL THING, Site Editor ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) ____________________________________________________________________ MARGARET ROUSE, Associate Editor ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) ___________________________________________________________________ :::::::::::::::::::: ABOUT THIS NEWSLETTER ::::::::::::::::::::: Published by TechTarget (http://www.techtarget.com) TechTarget - The Most Targeted IT Media Copyright 2003, All Rights Reserved. Unsubscribe from 'Word of the Day' - Simply Reply to this Email with REMOVE within the Body or Subject > or - Go to: http://WhatIs.techtarget.com/register - Log in to edit your profile. - Click on the link to Edit email subscriptions. - Uncheck the box next to the newsletter you wish to unsubscribe from. - When finished, click "Save Changes to My Profile."