Maven vs. Ant

一个不错的比较，摘自OTN

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Making the Choice

The build process is a key component in any J2EE project, and there are a number of build tools to choose from. For the purposes of this article, our discussion will be limited to two of the most popular J2EE build tools: Maven and Ant.

Maven and Ant are open-source projects from the Apache Software Foundation, and choosing between them is one of the most important decisions a project leader can make. Maven aims to help developers build, test, and document their Java projects easily and in a consistent way. It is a powerful tool, and it can very helpful for managing a project during its life cycle.

Ant is the most popular build tool in the Java world. It is a very flexible tool; however, this flexibility comes at a price. Many enterprise projects suffer from obese Ant scripts, which are difficult to manage after the build owner leaves the group.

To help you choose between these tools, here is a high-level comparison:

	Ant	Maven
Installation	Very easy	Very easy (very similar to Ant)
Time to start a new project	5 minutes	15 minutes
Time to add a new functionality	10 minutes to add a new target	2 minutes to use a new goal
Time to learn for a new developer	30 minutes. Very easy to understand, and very good tool support.	2 hours. Can be confusing at the beginning.
Standard layout	No (which is good; you can do whatever you want).	Yes (which is good, all your projects will look the same).
Multi-project support	Yes, but you have to do your own master build file.	Yes, with the Maven Reactor
Documentation generation	No standard way to do it, but there are plenty of available tools.	Yes
IDE integration	Yes	Very basic

My recommendation is to choose Ant if you know what you're doing and want absolute control over your build mechanism. However, if you are unsure about your project structure and do not have much experience with build systems, choose Maven. Maven will provide you with a good project layout and excellent tools to help you across the whole project life cycle.