Just about every Java project that I\'ve seen either uses Maven or Ant. They are fine tools and I think just about any project can use them. But what ever happened to make
One big reason is that both Ant and Maven (and most java targeted SCM, CI and IDE tools) are written in java by/for java developers. This makes it simpler to integrate into your development environment and allows other tools such as the IDE and CI servers to integrate portions of the ant/maven libraries within the build/deployment infrastructure.