# JRake **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [December 18, 2006, 2:31pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/jrake/79721 "2006-12-18T14:31:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Bil\_K](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/848f3c/32.png) [@Bil\_K](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Bil_K)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2006, 2:31pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/jrake/79721/1 "2006-12-18T14:31:08Z")
Fowler points to some folks replacing Ant with Rake: [JRake](http://martinfowler.com/bliki/JRake.html) Regards, ---
**Author:** ![Bil\_K](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/848f3c/32.png) [@Bil\_K](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Bil_K)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2006, 2:37pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/jrake/79721/2 "2006-12-18T14:37:08Z")
> ## Fowler points to some folks replacing Ant with Rake: [JRake](http://martinfowler.com/bliki/JRake.html) Regards, > > Bil K. > [Ruby Wish List](http://kleb.tadalist.com/lists/public/427170) awesome, that will fit nicely with my current toolset thanks Bil ---
**Author:** ![Bil\_K](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/848f3c/32.png) [@Bil\_K](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Bil_K)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2006, 2:49pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/jrake/79721/3 "2006-12-18T14:49:10Z")
Bil K. wrote: > Fowler points to some folks replacing Ant with Rake: > > [JRake](http://martinfowler.com/bliki/JRake.html) Yeah, cool stuff. I’ve been following the JRake development the past week or so and it’s starting to look pretty solid. I’ve figured this would be a great application of JRuby, and I’m glad someone with more time than me decided to start wiring it up 🙂 I had originally planned to make it use Ant tasks, but perhaps there’s more value in reimplementing the tasks from scratch to be more Rubyish? My justification was in reusing all the many, many Ant tasks already implemented within a Rake script, but I can see both sides. ---
**Author:** ![Bil\_K](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/848f3c/32.png) [@Bil\_K](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Bil_K)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2006, 2:57pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/jrake/79721/4 "2006-12-18T14:57:11Z")
> I had originally planned to make it use Ant tasks, but perhaps there’s > more value in reimplementing the tasks from scratch to be more Rubyish? > My justification was in reusing all the many, many Ant tasks already > implemented within a Rake script, but I can see both sides. From what you’ve seen about JRake so far, would it be too difficult to generate Rakefiles out of Ant build.xml makefiles ? ## best, UG Uma G. > **[The Umasphere](https://umageller.wordpress.com)** > > Uma Geller dreams by day and types by night ---
**Author:** ![Bil\_K](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/848f3c/32.png) [@Bil\_K](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Bil_K)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2007, 6:51pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/jrake/79721/5 "2007-03-17T18:51:39Z")
> > I had originally planned to make it use Ant tasks, but perhaps there’s > > more value in reimplementing the tasks from scratch to be more Rubyish? > > My justification was in reusing all the many, many Ant tasks already > > implemented within a Rake script, but I can see both sides. > > From what you’ve seen about JRake so far, would it be too > difficult to generate Rakefiles out of Ant build.xml makefiles ? > > best, I know I’m posting to this forum a little late but… In my opinion, the best approach is to invoke Ant tasks from within a rake file. The best part of Ant is the multitude of tasks available. I wrote awrapper called Antwrap which may be helpful to you: [http://rubyforge.org/projects/antwrap/](http://rubyforge.org/projects/antwrap/) [http://antwrap.rubyforge.org/](http://antwrap.rubyforge.org/) There is a convert.rb script available which will convert an Ant build.xml file to a Rake file. Antwrap is a gem that allows you to invoke Ant tasks from within a Ruby/JRuby script. Cheers, Caleb ---
**Author:** ![Bil\_K](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/b/848f3c/32.png) [@Bil\_K](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/Bil_K)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2006, 3:37am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/jrake/79721/6 "2006-12-21T03:37:15Z")
Uma G. wrote: > From what you’ve seen about JRake so far, would it be too > difficult to generate Rakefiles out of Ant build.xml makefiles ? It’s hard to say, but if there’s a straightfoward translation for tasks, it shouldn’t be hard to make that translation. Ant is almost exclusively descriptive rather than procedural, so going to a more procedural build script like JRake/Rake ought not to be too difficult.