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  <properties>
    <author email="">Conor MacNeill</author>
    <author email="stefan.bodewig@epost.de">Stefan Bodewig</author>
    <title>Ant News</title>
  </properties>

<body>
  <section name="Java 1.4 Support">
    <h3>Feb 15, 2002: Java 1.4 Support</h3>
    <p>
      Java 1.4 has now been released by Sun. The latest Ant source supports 
      the new <tt>assert</tt> statement in the compiler task via the <tt>source</tt> 
      attribute. It also contains a compatibility fix needed for some ant tasks
      on Java 1.4 over Windows XP. If you have problems running Ant 1.4.1 on WinXP/Java 1.4,
      please use a recent build or compile your own version from the source tree. 
    </p>
  </section>
  
  <section name="See our new logo!">
    <h3>Have a look at our new cool logo!</h3>
  </section>
  
  <section name="Ant 1.4.1">
  <h3>11 October 2001 Ant 1.4.1 released !</h3>
  <p>Please visit the 
     <a href="http://www.apache.org/dist/jakarta/jakarta-ant/release/v1.4.1/">
     download area</a>. 
     </p>
  </section>

  <section name="Ant 2.0 Requirements Collected - Next is Design">
      <p>A commented version of the collected user requirements is now
      available <a href="ant2/features.html">here</a> - it is not
      complete as some details still have to be defined, but it should
      give you an idea of what Ant2 is going to look like.</p>

      <p>Several details can only be decided in the light of real code
      and prototypes.  Several people are working on prototypes (that
      can be found in Ant's CVS module in the proposals directory) and
      discussion is going on on the Ant-Dev mailing list.</p>
  </section>

  <section name="Best-Practices Profile of Ant at Sun&apos;s Dot-Com Builder">
      <p>Sun has released an introductory article on Ant on their
      Dot-Com Builder site on May&#160;30&#160;2001. See <a
      href="http://dcb.sun.com/practices/profiles/ant.jsp">http://dcb.sun.com/practices/profiles/ant.jsp</a></p>
  </section>

  <section name="Ant 2.0 Requirements">
    <p>Ant has been in use for quite some time and has been used in ways never conceived when it
       was originally written. While Ant 1.x has continued to sucessfully evolve and grow, there 
       are a number of limitations and inconsistencies that are now apparent and which need to 
       be addressed. 
    </p>
    
    <p>
       As we continue to evolve and enhance Ant 1.x, it is now time to define what Ant 2.0 will
       encompass. Ant 2.0 will be a major rearchitecting of Ant. It has a number of goals including:
       <ul>
         <li>Define the "contract" with build file writers to which Ant will be bound.</li>
         <li>Define the "contract" between the Ant core and Task writers.</li>
         <li>Make Ant more easily extendable by allowing additional tasks to be "dropped" in.</li>
         <li>Allow Ant to function as a component to simplify integration with GUIs and IDEs.</li>
         <li>Make Ant more regular and logical.</li>
       </ul>
       
       It is expected that Ant 2.0 will break Ant 1.x based build files. The intention is to
       make this the last time that will happen.
     </p>
     
     <p>
        To advance the definition of Ant, user requirements are now being accepted on the 
        Ant-Dev mailing list. Any requirement will be accepted for consideration. The 
        requirements are being collected into a document which is available 
        <a href="ant2/requested-features.txt">on-line</a>. New features will be excepted 
        until March 21st, 2001. At that time, each requirement will be discussed 
        for inclusion in an Ant 2.0 requirement document.
      </p>
      
      <p>
        For your reference some of the goals which have shaped the development of Ant 1.x are
        available <a href="ant2/original-specification.html">here</a>. These continue to be
        relevant to Ant 2.0.
      </p>
      
      <p>
        If you want to shape the future of Ant, join the 
        <a href="http://jakarta.apache.org/site/mail.html">Ant-Dev mailing list</a> and contribute
        your ideas.
      </p>
  </section>

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</document>

