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Apache Maven vs Pants: What are the differences?
Introduction
Apache Maven and Pants are both build automation tools commonly used for software development projects. While they serve similar purposes, there are several key differences between the two.
Dependency Management: Maven uses a centralized approach to manage project dependencies, where dependencies are declared in a single configuration file (pom.xml). Pants, on the other hand, uses a decentralized approach, with dependencies declared within each individual target file. This allows developers using Pants to have more control over their dependencies at a granular level.
Build System: Maven follows a convention-over-configuration approach, where it provides a predefined project structure and build lifecycle. Pants, on the other hand, emphasizes flexibility and configurability, allowing developers to define their own build system and customize it according to their project requirements.
Language Support: Maven is primarily focused on Java projects, although it does support other programming languages to some extent. Pants, on the other hand, was developed with polyglot build support in mind, offering a more seamless experience for multi-language projects. It provides native support for languages such as Java, Python, Scala, and more.
Incremental Compilation: Maven performs a full compilation every time the project is built, regardless of whether changes have been made to the source code. Pants, on the other hand, leverages a novel dependency analysis engine called Zinc, which allows for incremental compilation. This means that only the necessary parts of the project are rebuilt when changes are made, resulting in faster build times.
IDE Integration: While both Maven and Pants integrate well with popular IDEs like IntelliJ IDEA and Eclipse, Maven's integration is more mature and widespread. This is because Maven has been around for a longer time and has gained wider adoption within the Java ecosystem. Pants, on the other hand, is relatively newer and may offer a more limited range of IDE integrations.
Ecosystem and Community: The Maven ecosystem is well-established and has a large community of users and contributors. This means that there are a vast number of plugins and resources available for Maven, making it easier for developers to find solutions to common build challenges. While Pants also has a growing community, it may not offer the same level of maturity and breadth of resources as Maven.
In summary, Apache Maven and Pants differ in their approach to dependency management, build system, language support, incremental compilation, IDE integration, and community ecosystem. These differences make each tool more suitable for specific project requirements and development scenarios.
Pros of Apache Maven
- Dependency management138
- Necessary evil70
- I’d rather code my app, not my build60
- Publishing packaged artifacts48
- Convention over configuration43
- Modularisation18
- Consistency across builds11
- Prevents overengineering using scripting6
- Runs Tests4
- Lot of cool plugins4
- Extensible3
- Hard to customize2
- Runs on Linux2
- Runs on OS X1
- Slow incremental build1
- Inconsistent buillds1
- Undeterminisc1
- Good IDE tooling1
Pros of Pants
- Creates deployable packages6
- Runs on Linux4
- Runs on OS X4
- BUILD files4
- Runs tests4
- Scales4
- Flexibility2
- Extensible2
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Cons of Apache Maven
- Complex6
- Inconsistent buillds1
- Not many plugin-alternatives0