The short answer: I've found it very difficult to maintain a Maven build system, and I would like to switch to Gradle as soon as I can.
I've been working with Maven for over four years. I would call myself an expert on build systems because in the last (at least) five companies I've been in, I've done major renovations on the build/deploy infrastructure.
Some of the lessons I've learned:
- Most developers tend not to spend a lot of time thinking about build systems; as a result, the build turns into a spaghetti mess of hacks, but they do appreciate it when that mess is cleaned up and rationalized.
- In dealing with complexity, I would rather have a transparent system that exposes the complexity (like Ant) than one that tries to make complex things simple by imposing rigid restrictions, like Maven. Think of Linux vs. Windows.
- Maven has a lot of holes in functionality which require byzantine workarounds. This leads to POM files that are incomprehensible and unmaintainable.
- Ant is super-flexible and understandable, but Ant files can get pretty big too, because it's so low-level.
- For any significant project, developers have to create their own build/deploy structure beyond what the tool provides; the suitability of the structure to the project has a lot to do with how easy it is to maintain. The best tools will support you in creating a structure and not fight you.
I've looked into Gradle a bit and it looks like it has the potential to be the best of both worlds, allowing a mix of declarative and procedural build description.
