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Date: Mon, 06 Jan 2014 15:23:59 -0500
From: Ron Wheeler <rwheeler@artifact-software.com>
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Subject: Re: short and snappy description of what Maven is
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On 06/01/2014 3:08 PM, Russell Gold wrote:
> Several sentences sounds good. But here�s another question. Comparing Maven to ant is almost too easy in terms of advantages. Is gradle now a serious competitor (I had been working on converting an enormous project to maven, but the architect decided to switch to gradle, so I am particularly sensitive to the issue). I can see some superficial advantages of gradle that might appeal to some projects. Is it better to ignore or address this?

The more that can be said to relate Maven to what the reader already 
knows or is considering, the more useful the paragraph.
There is no reason why the following paragraphs could not point deeper 
into the documentation for comparisons with Ant or Gradle.
I would suggest that the first paragraph not include links so that the 
reader can at least get through one clear section before starting to 
jump around and get carried off into the world of hyperlinks.

Ron

> On Jan 6, 2014, at 3:02 PM, Stephen Connolly <stephen.alan.connolly@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> On Monday, 6 January 2014, Ron Wheeler wrote:
>>
>>> I think that the target has to be people deciding whether to try Maven.
>>> They initially want to know what it does and why it is better than Ant or
>>> whatever they are using now.
>>>
>>> Trying to teach Maven in a single sentence is too much to ask.
>>>
>>> "Maven is a build tool which consumes and produces artifacts managed in a
>>> repository." doesn't sound like it will help build my application.
>>> At the start, one doesn't have any artifacts or own a repository.
>>>
>>> "Apache Maven is a convention-over-configuration build tool which has
>>> great dependency management features."
>>
>> I think we should hint at the descriptive philosophy rather than the
>> procedural philosophy most tools take
>>
>>
>>> is pretty clear for a single sentence description and it true.
>>> Maybe we can come up with a follow-up sentence to amplify/explain this one.
>>> Most programmers or project managers should be able to find the time to
>>> read 2 or maybe 3 sentences before deciding on a build tool.
>>> As long as each sentence draws the person deeper into Maven, that would
>>> work.
>>
>> Yes that is the idea
>>
>>
>>> Ron
>>>
>>>
>>> On 06/01/2014 12:57 PM, Russell Gold wrote:
>>>
>>>> Of course, you could say that about Gradle, too. And ant now does have
>>>> the ability to use those dependency features.
>>>>
>>>> I went through this when creating my video course (not in the sig because
>>>> this is work email). It�s not clear to me that you can make a one sentence
>>>> description that will provide sufficiently useful information unless
>>>> something like:
>>>>
>>>> "Maven is a build tool which consumes and produces artifacts managed in a
>>>> repository."
>>>>
>>>> But that is not going to help people coming new to the project.
>>>>
>>>> I think I am missing the motivation here.Is the target for this
>>>> description people deciding whether to try Maven? People trying to learn
>>>> how to use it?
>>>>
>>>> On Jan 6, 2014, at 12:43 PM, Lyons, Roy <Roy.Lyons@cmegroup.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> on https://cwiki.apache.org/confluence/display/MAVEN/New+Main+Site it
>>>>> says:
>>>>>
>>>>> We need a short and snappy description of what Maven is:
>>>>>
>>>>> "Apache Maven is a software project management and comprehension tool."
>>>>>
>>>>> Is just not an easy to understand description of what Maven is.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> I would like to submit my short description for review.
>>>>>
>>>>> "Apache Maven is a convention-over-configuration build tool which has
>>>>> great dependency management features."
>>>>>
>>>>> I know that it does more than that - but I feel that at its core, this
>>>>> is what it really is.
>>>>>
>>>>>


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