Apache Ant vs Closure Compiler

Overview

Apache Ant

Stacks250

Followers151

Votes7

GitHub Stars449

Forks449

Closure Compiler

Stacks281

Followers62

Votes5

GitHub Stars7.6K

Forks1.2K

Apache Ant vs Closure Compiler: What are the differences?

Build Automation Tool: Apache Ant is a build automation tool primarily used for Java projects, providing a way to automate assembling and compiling code. Closure Compiler, on the other hand, is a JavaScript optimizer that minimizes code and detects errors early in the development process.
Language Compatibility: Apache Ant is primarily used for Java projects and works well with Java codebases. In contrast, Closure Compiler is tailored for optimizing and compiling JavaScript code.
Purpose: Apache Ant is more focused on automating repetitive tasks in the build process, such as compiling code, running tests, and packaging the application. Closure Compiler, on the other hand, is specifically designed for optimizing JavaScript code for better performance and reducing file sizes.
Configuration: Apache Ant requires XML configuration files to define build tasks and targets, making it more verbose and complex compared to Closure Compiler, which can be invoked through the command line with specific optimizations options.
Output: Apache Ant typically generates artifacts like JAR files or WAR files, whereas Closure Compiler outputs optimized JavaScript code with reduced file sizes, making web applications faster and more efficient.
Community and Support: Apache Ant has a larger and more established community given its longer history in the software development world, providing extensive documentation and resources. Closure Compiler, being a more specialized tool, has a smaller but dedicated community that focuses on optimizing JavaScript code effectively.

In Summary, Apache Ant and Closure Compiler differ in their usage for build automation in Java and JavaScript projects, respectively, with variations in language compatibility, purpose, configuration, output, and community support.

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Detailed Comparison

Apache Ant	Closure Compiler
Ant is a Java-based build tool. In theory, it is kind of like Make, without Make's wrinkles and with the full portability of pure Java code.	The Closure Compiler is a tool for making JavaScript download and run faster. It is a true compiler for JavaScript. Instead of compiling from a source language to machine code, it compiles from JavaScript to better JavaScript. It parses your JavaScript, analyzes it, removes dead code and rewrites and minimizes what's left. It also checks syntax, variable references, and types, and warns about common JavaScript pitfalls.
The most complete Java build and deployment tool available.;Platform neutral and can handle platform specific properties such as file separators;Can be used to perform platform specific tasks such as modifying the modified time of a file using 'touch' command;Scripts are written using plain XML. If you are already familiar with XML, you can learn pretty quickly;Automate complicated repetitive tasks;Interface to develop custom tasks;Can be easily invoked from the command line and it can integrate with free and commercial IDEs	parses JavaScript, analyzes it, removes dead code and rewrites and minimizes what's left; checks syntax, variable references, and types, and warns about common JavaScript pitfalls; transpiling some ECMAScript 6 code to ECMAScript 3
Statistics
GitHub Stars 449	GitHub Stars 7.6K
GitHub Forks 449	GitHub Forks 1.2K
Stacks 250	Stacks 281
Followers 151	Followers 62
Votes 7	Votes 5
Pros & Cons
Pros 4 Flexible 1 Easy to learn 1 Simple 1 Easy to write own java-build-hooks Cons 1 Slow 1 Old and not widely used anymore	Pros 1 The best performing output 1 Small output size 1 Dead code elimination 1 ES6 support 1 Bundle support for CommonJS, ES6, .

What are some alternatives to Apache Ant, Closure Compiler?

Apache Maven

Maven allows a project to build using its project object model (POM) and a set of plugins that are shared by all projects using Maven, providing a uniform build system. Once you familiarize yourself with how one Maven project builds you automatically know how all Maven projects build saving you immense amounts of time when trying to navigate many projects.

Gradle

Gradle is a build tool with a focus on build automation and support for multi-language development. If you are building, testing, publishing, and deploying software on any platform, Gradle offers a flexible model that can support the entire development lifecycle from compiling and packaging code to publishing web sites.

Bazel

Bazel is a build tool that builds code quickly and reliably. It is used to build the majority of Google's software, and thus it has been designed to handle build problems present in Google's development environment.

Pants

Pants is a build system for Java, Scala and Python. It works particularly well for a source code repository that contains many distinct projects.

JitPack

JitPack is an easy to use package repository for Gradle/Sbt and Maven projects. We build GitHub projects on demand and provides ready-to-use packages.

SBT

It is similar to Java's Maven and Ant. Its main features are: Native support for compiling Scala code and integrating with many Scala test frameworks.

Buck

Buck encourages the creation of small, reusable modules consisting of code and resources, and supports a variety of languages on many platforms.

Please

Please is a cross-language build system with an emphasis on high performance, extensibility and reproduceability. It supports a number of popular languages and can automate nearly any aspect of your build process.

CMake

It is used to control the software compilation process using simple platform and compiler independent configuration files, and generate native makefiles and workspaces that can be used in the compiler environment of the user's choice.

Sonatype Nexus

It is an open source repository that supports many artifact formats, including Docker, Java™ and npm. With the Nexus tool integration, pipelines in your toolchain can publish and retrieve versioned apps and their dependencies

Related Comparisons

Apache Ant vs Closure Compiler: What are the differences?

Build Automation Tool: Apache Ant is a build automation tool primarily used for Java projects, providing a way to automate assembling and compiling code. Closure Compiler, on the other hand, is a JavaScript optimizer that minimizes code and detects errors early in the development process.
Language Compatibility: Apache Ant is primarily used for Java projects and works well with Java codebases. In contrast, Closure Compiler is tailored for optimizing and compiling JavaScript code.
Purpose: Apache Ant is more focused on automating repetitive tasks in the build process, such as compiling code, running tests, and packaging the application. Closure Compiler, on the other hand, is specifically designed for optimizing JavaScript code for better performance and reducing file sizes.
Configuration: Apache Ant requires XML configuration files to define build tasks and targets, making it more verbose and complex compared to Closure Compiler, which can be invoked through the command line with specific optimizations options.
Output: Apache Ant typically generates artifacts like JAR files or WAR files, whereas Closure Compiler outputs optimized JavaScript code with reduced file sizes, making web applications faster and more efficient.
Community and Support: Apache Ant has a larger and more established community given its longer history in the software development world, providing extensive documentation and resources. Closure Compiler, being a more specialized tool, has a smaller but dedicated community that focuses on optimizing JavaScript code effectively.

Apache Ant vs Closure Compiler

Overview