nMaven’s
Origins
nMaven
was borne of the practical desire to make several projects at the Apache Software
Foundation(ASF) work in
the same, predictable
way.
nBefore,
every project at the ASF had a different approach to compilation, distribution, and web
site generation. Ex. Build process for Tomcat was different from build process used by Struts. Turbine developers used a different approach
to site generation than the developers of Jakarta Commons. Etc.
nThis
lack of common approach to building software meant that every new project tended to copy and
paste another project’s build system.
nThe
barrier to entry for a project with a difficult build system was extremely high. Difficult to attract
developer because it could take an hour to configure everything in just the right way.