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							<document>
  <properties>
    <author email="">Conor MacNeill</author>
    <title>Mutant Introduction</title>
  </properties>
<body>

<section name="Introduction">
<p>
These pages describe the design and implementation of Mutant.
</p>

<p>
For some time, there has been the concept of Ant 2.0, a rearchitecting of
Ant designed to address the shortcomings in the design of Ant 1.x, while
drawing the experience gained in that development. This rearchitecting
would most likely be accompanied by at least some break in backward
compatability. Over time Ant 2.0 has come to be known as Ant2 and the current
Ant codebase is generally known as Ant1.
</p>

<p>
Mutant is my proposal, a revolution, for Ant2. Actually, I consider it more
an evolution of the design and implementation used for Ant1, but in Jakarta
parlance, being a separate codebase, it is termed a revolution.
</p>

<p>
There is no special significance in the name Mutant. I chose it because, as
a word, it is an extension of the word Ant and it also signifies a change
from the previous generation
</p>
</section>

<section name="Other Proposals">
<p>
Mutant is not the only proposed revolution for Ant2. Peter Donald has
developed another known as
<a href="http://jakarta.apache.org/ant/myrmidon">Myrmidon</a>
which presents a different view of how Ant2 could be realized. Other
people hold the view that Ant1 can continue to evolve and that there
is no need for rearchitecture of its codebase. I recommend you
investigate all these points of view.
</p>

<p>
As I write this, no decision has been taken as to which codebase will be
adopted for Ant2. It may not be Mutant and it could even be some entirely
new proposal. These pages do not compare and contrast Mutant with these
other proposals or points of view, at least not explicitly. They are just
intended to describe how Mutant is designed and implemented and why it is the
way it is.
</p>
</section>

<section name="Getting Started">
<box>
<h1><font color="red">Caution</font></h1>

<p>
Mutant is not even an alpha release. While it is relatively stable, it is
subject to change. There are no backward compatability guarantees for any of
the classes, interfaces, build files, configuration, launch scripts, etc that
Mutant provides.
</p>

<p>In particular, some features in Mutant are experimental and may not, in the
long run, prove to be worthwhile.</p>

</box>

<p>
<a href="goals.html">Start</a> now by looking at the key requirements which have
shaped the design of Mutant.
</p>

<div align="right">
<p>Conor MacNeill</p>
</div>

</section>

</body>
</document>