To make matters worse, several plugins have bugs which are only “fixed” in (SVN, CVS, etc) but not released.

I’m sure they’re all over the place, but complaining about Ant builds that are impossible to understand sounds an awful lot like complaining about a project or source code that is impossible to understand. Ant is like a programming language, if you use it stupidly, it’ll get confusing. I suppose if you aren’t familiar with how to create an intuitive build process, Maven is more idiot proof… but so are “application builder tools” and their likes. (MS Access, Oracle APEX)

I just can’t see the use in these things (or the problem with doing them in Ant) for a project/team that isn’t huge.

-download dependency source code
(just drop the source jars into svn? also, no worky if you don’t have an internet conn. and… over-use of dependencies is a valid concern.. not something to be encouraged, look at the mess Spring, Spring Security, and other bloated OSS projects have to deal with now. dependencies may help speed things up a little in the short term–but for the ‘users’ of a lib and over the long term, they’re nothing but a bad thing to cause problems)
-run tests
(ant does it fine, if you even need it to, and honestly unless you’re doing a release or commit, mandating the execution of tests every single build can waste time. just test when you need to, testing and building aren’t always done together)
-generate JavaDoc and other documentation
(ant can do it fine. and is it really impossible to “just look” at an ant view in Eclipse and immediately understand how to generate docs by clicking on the task? it couldn’t be easier)
-Start up a test web environment if it is a web product
(install, build/deploy, start? what’s so complicated?)
-view a continuous integration environment
(small teams don’t have the resources to set up, create tests for, and maintain a cont int env, and unless your code base is massive it should be well enough designed that this isn’t a serious need anyway)
-see source control repository details
(other tools do this just fine, not sure what the point is?)
-understand how the project is broken up into modules
(isn’t there documentation or architecture diagrams? and if you’re being tossed into a project with no introduction or assistance, just a ‘here’s your task, good luck figuring it all out for yourself!’ it’s going to suck regardless)

And Maven IS slow. Aren’t compilers and software slow enough as it is without adding extra magic to make the problem worse?

interface Sort
class DefaultSort

interface Strategy
class DefaultSortStrategy

Max.

evaluates fine.

MARKETING-CALLS@NO-MEDIA-OR-RHINOMARKETING-CALLSCONTROLALT.DELETENO-MEDIA-OR-RHINOMARKETING-CALLSCONTROLALTDELETE.CO.ZA

even faster

the problem lies with the LocalPart and its length. Not with the domain.

I believe the LocalPart can be broken in parts+domain and if the part evaluate fine, so will the whole and performance of the evaluation will increase.

Not sure what the criteria would be for breaking the LocalPart in chunks.

NO-MEDIA-OR-RHINOMARKETING-CALLS@CONTROLALTDELETE.CO.ZA

could be split in
NO-MEDIA-OR-RHINO@CONTROLALTDELETE.CO.ZA
and
MARKETING-CALLS@CONTROLALTDELETE.CO.ZA

if both evaluate fine than the whole is fine.

I guess where to put the split is not trivial with the more exotic LocalParts.

Enjoy.