What is the Use of Apache Ant and CVS in the Java Development...?

[gokul]

Hi,

i am heading to develop one chatting application in JMF with JAIN-SIP API.. In stead of refering some sites, they talked about Apache Ant and CVS... WHats that..?

for what purpose we need that in the Java Application Development..?

How to use that in that..?

i saw some reference files of Ant and CVS..
but i couldn't understand that..

pls help me..

[jwenting]

Ant is a build tool, similar to what make does for C.
It helps automate builds, making them far easier to perform in a way that can be easily reproduced.
Little use if you have a few files, but when your project runs into the hundreds or thousands of files it gets very handy.
Plus it can help in building your jars for you and for automatically running your unit tests and reporting the results.

CVS is for version control of your sources. Makes it easy to store revisions both as a backup (if you do it on a different drive or machine) and to have access to historical versions (maybe if you need to revert to what you had yesterday because you made a serious blunder).

I use both a lot, and plan to integrate them even more so that I can have ant build a jar of my applications directly from CVS for example.
http://www.pragmaticprogrammer.com/ have excellent books.
Get their books on CVS and project automation, they'll open your eyes.
http://www.pragmaticprogrammer.com/starter_kit/auto/index.html
http://www.pragmaticprogrammer.com/starter_kit/vc/index.html

EBook versions cost about $20 each, well worth the investment.
Paper versions cost a bit more, but less than printing the EBook yourself (for those who can wait for delivery or just don't like to read PDFs).

[jwenting]

Just an example of the usefulness of CVS:

Today I visited a friend and did some work there. I checked the changes into CVS from over there, and when I got back home I loaded my regular development tool (JBuilder) and ran an update of my project which instantly gave me all those changes on my local harddisk.
No more remembering which files to copy from one directory to another, that's all taken care of.

[Sauce]

CVS also has the ability of branching. In which 2 people can edit the same file at the same time. Then when you resubmit the file to the cvs server you are given the ability to merge your changes and the changes somebody else did together.

[freesoft_2000]

Hi everyone,

If you are doing a chatting program i don't think(someone correct me if i am wrong) you need ant or cvs. You simply need to use sockets

Richard West

[jwenting]

Richard, Ant and CVS aren't programming APIS. They're tools to make your job easier.
Just like you can use notepad to write your code but it's a lot faster and more convenient to use vim or jEdit.

[freesoft_2000]

Hi everyone,

I had a feeling was wrong, wasn't quite sure about this.
Sorry about it. Isn't CVS a protocol??

Richard West

[jwenting]

there may be a protocol called CVS (though I've never heard of it) but that's not the issue here.
We're talking about CVS the VCS (version control system), a similar (but free) product to visual sourcesafe or PVCS.

[freesoft_2000]

Hi Everyone,

CVS is - Concurrent Versions System. Its something where people get together to do their work ususallly for Open-Source. When i said protocol i meant a way for developesr to get the latest codes using their client-server access system and not an internet protocol like HTTP.

I was referring to something that i had replied to like the below thread

http://www.daniweb.com/techtalkforums/thread28901.html

Richard West