Make replacement for Erlang - suggestions?

[Luke Gorrie]

Eric Merritt <cyberlync@REDACTED> writes:

>  Java already has a similar tool call 'Ant'. Its a
> very good tool directed specifically at Java. It may
> be customized for other languages due to the provision
> of extension tags, however the core of 'Ant' including
> all the built in tags are specific to Java.

I interrogated some Java friends about why they like Ant better than
Make. Apparently the big win is portability - it runs stand-alone
anywhere you have java. Since an extremely common platform for java
programmers is windows with java and without cygwin, Ant-based
programs are more accessible.

Apparently it also does a nice job of some things that are hard in
Make, related to the gazillion new file formats (with catchy names
like Enterprise Archives, or .ear). I didn't get the details of that,
so I'm not sure if a short Make include file would do the job too.

I'd be tempted to write it all off as java not-invented-here syndrome,
but they guys I asked are good programmers who know unix, so I guess
it's a real win for java.

Didn't sound like it had any fundamental improvements that one would
want in a new Make replacement for unix-like environments though.

Cheers,
Luke