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<meta name="author" value="Adam Murdoch ">
<meta name="email" value="adammurdoch @apache.org">
<meta name="author" value="Peter Donald ">
<meta name="email" value="peter @apache.org">
<title>Apache Myrmidon - Introducti on</title>
<title>Apache Myrmidon - Myrmid on</title>
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<a name="What is Ant?"><strong>What is Ant?</strong></a>
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<p>Ant is a cross-platform build tool that features ease of
use and extensibility as it's primary goal.</p>
<p>Why another build tool when there is already make, gnumake,
nmake, jam, and others? Make-like tools are inherently shell-based;
they execute native commands and shell scripts to perform the work
associated with the build process. So to extend the the tool by
writing a program or script executable by the OS you are on. This
makes it difficult to achieve portability between platforms.</p>
<p>Ant is a different beast. Instead of using OS-specific commands
to extend the build process, you leverage the cross-platform features
of Java to write "tasks". This makes it much easier to achieve
a portal build process between platforms. Ant also differs in that it uses
XML to describe the build process.</p>
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<a name="What is Myrmidon?"><strong>What is Myrmidon?</strong></a>
<a name="What is Myrmidon?"><strong>What is Myrmidon?</strong></a>
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<p>
Myrmidon is one of the Ant 2 proposals currently in development. You can
read more about the goals of Ant 2
<p>Myrmidon is a proposal for Ant 2. Ant2 is the next evolution of the
Ant build tool aimed at removing many of the limitations of the Ant1.x
product. In particular it aims to;</p>
<ul>
<li>Remove ambiguities and points of confusion for build file
writers.</li>
<li>Ease deployment and management of 3rd party tasks and
dependencies.</li>
<li>Simplify development of tasks by task-writers.</li>
<li>Enable ad-hoc "tasks" to be written inside build file,
probably using well known scripting languages such as python and
javascript. (Possible in ant1.x but prohibitively difficult).</li>
<li>Integrate templating technologies such as XSLT, velocity etc
to enable development of reusable build file elements.</li>
</ul>
<p> You can read more about the goals of Ant 2
<a href="http://jakarta.apache.org/ant/ant2/">here</a>.
<a href="http://jakarta.apache.org/ant/ant2/">here</a>.
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<p>
Myrmidon is a general-purpose
<i>task engine</i>. It contains the basic
building blocks for assembling any sort of task-based tool. Ant 2
is an example of such a tool, which could be assembled using the Myrmidon task
engine, and a library of build related tasks.
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<p>
Currently, Myrmidon is a prototype of what a task engine might look. It
includes a small set of tasks and data types. We are currently porting
many of the Ant 1.x tasks to the Myrmidon task engine.
<p>Myrmidon was specifically designed as both a tool and as
an API library that can be reused in other products. It contains the
basic building blocks for assembling any sort of task-based tool. Ant 2
is an example of such a tool, which could be assembled using the Myrmidon
task container, and a library of build related tasks.
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<a name="A Rose by any other name ..."><strong>A Rose by any other name ...</strong></a>
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<p>
The name Myrmidon is a derivation of a mythological name for some ants that were turned
into soldiers by the god Zeus. It came to mean "a subordinate who executes orders
unquestioningly" which seemed suitable for a task execution/build tool. A more complete
description stolen from
<a href="http://bondi-blue.parlez.com/previous_words/myrmidon.txt">
http://bondi-blue.parlez.com/previous_words/myrmidon.txt</a>.
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<i>The appellation Myrmidon was derived from the Greek word "myrmex",
meaning ant. According to Greek mythology, the Myrmidons were
transformed into humans by the god Zeus as an act of kindness to his
son Aeacus. King Aeacus, captivated by a colony of ants, prayed
that he should receive an increase in population equal to the
number of ants before him. When he awoke the next day, the ants
were his human subjects. Thereafter, they were known as the
Myrmidons. See "The Iliad" for Homers' account of the Myrmidons
during the Trojan War.</i>
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