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  1. Stackups
  2. DevOps
  3. Build Automation
  4. Java Build Tools
  5. Apache Maven vs Please

Apache Maven vs Please

OverviewComparisonAlternatives

Overview

Apache Maven
Apache Maven
Stacks3.4K
Followers1.7K
Votes414
GitHub Stars4.8K
Forks2.8K
Please
Please
Stacks13
Followers14
Votes4
GitHub Stars2.6K
Forks210

Apache Maven vs Please: What are the differences?

Apache Maven: Apache build manager for Java projects. 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; Please: A Cross-Language Build System. 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.

Apache Maven and Please can be categorized as "Java Build" tools.

Some of the features offered by Apache Maven are:

  • Simple project setup that follows best practices - get a new project or module started in seconds
  • Consistent usage across all projects means no ramp up time for new developers coming onto a project
  • Superior dependency management including automatic updating, dependency closures (also known as transitive dependencies)

On the other hand, Please provides the following key features:

  • Build files
  • Build targets
  • Build labels

Apache Maven and Please are both open source tools. It seems that Apache Maven with 1.74K GitHub stars and 1.28K forks on GitHub has more adoption than Please with 811 GitHub stars and 76 GitHub forks.

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Detailed Comparison

Apache Maven
Apache Maven
Please
Please

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.

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.

Simple project setup that follows best practices - get a new project or module started in seconds;Consistent usage across all projects means no ramp up time for new developers coming onto a project;Superior dependency management including automatic updating, dependency closures (also known as transitive dependencies);Able to easily work with multiple projects at the same time;A large and growing repository of libraries and metadata to use out of the box, and arrangements in place with the largest Open Source projects for real-time availability of their latest releases;Extensible, with the ability to easily write plugins in Java or scripting languages;Instant access to new features with little or no extra configuration;Ant tasks for dependency management and deployment outside of Maven
Build files; Build targets; Build labels
Statistics
GitHub Stars
4.8K
GitHub Stars
2.6K
GitHub Forks
2.8K
GitHub Forks
210
Stacks
3.4K
Stacks
13
Followers
1.7K
Followers
14
Votes
414
Votes
4
Pros & Cons
Pros
  • 138
    Dependency management
  • 70
    Necessary evil
  • 60
    I’d rather code my app, not my build
  • 48
    Publishing packaged artifacts
  • 43
    Convention over configuration
Cons
  • 6
    Complex
  • 1
    Inconsistent buillds
  • 0
    Not many plugin-alternatives
Pros
  • 1
    Built-in languages are defined in the same language
  • 1
    Multi-language
  • 1
    IntelliJ support
  • 1
    No single WORKSPACE file that nobody owns or understand
Cons
  • 1
    No Windows support
Integrations
No integrations available
Python
Python
Java
Java
C++
C++
Golang
Golang

What are some alternatives to Apache Maven, Please?

Gradle

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

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

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

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

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

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

Apache Ant

Apache Ant

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.

CMake

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

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

JFrog Artifactory

JFrog Artifactory

It integrates with your existing ecosystem supporting end-to-end binary management that overcomes the complexity of working with different software package management systems, and provides consistency to your CI/CD workflow.

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