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# News

### Ant 1.6beta3

### December 5, 2003 - Ant 1.6beta3 Available

Apache Ant 1.6beta3 is now available for download. As we've already said in the announcements of Ant 1.5.4, this release requires JDK 1.2 or later to run.

We encourage user to give this beta a release a try and report any bugs found so that we get a chance to fix them before we make the final release of Ant 1.6.

Ant 1.6 adds a lot of new features, most prominently support for XML namespaces as well as a new concept of Ant libraries that makes use of namespaces to avoid name clashes of custom tasks. For a longer list of fixed bugs and new features see the release notes.

The manual of Ant 1.6 is available on line here.

If you find anything that hasn't been covered in the manual (I bet you did) or could be explained better, feel free to help us out in the Wiki .

### Ant 1.5.4

### August 12, 2003 - Ant 1.5.4 Available

Apache Ant 1.5.4 is now available for download.

This is a minor bugfix release that fixes a problem with the `javah` task on JDK 1.4.2 and a couple of bugs in the Visual Age for Java intergration tasks. If you don't use javah or VAJ, there is no reason to upgrade.

Note
Ant 1.5.4 will be the last release that supports JDK 1.1. The next major release of Ant, Ant 1.6, will require JDK 1.2 or later.

### Java Pro 2003 Readers Choice Award

### June 11th, 2003: Ant wins a Java Pro readers' choice award

Ant has won the Java Pro 2003 Readers' Choice Award for

Most Valuable Java Deployment Technology.

Thanks to Java Pro and all its readers. You can read about these awards at the Java Pro website.

### JDJ Editors Choice Award

### June 2003: Ant wins JDJ Editors' Choice Award

"Ant is the hammer of the Java world: without it, civilization might have progressed, but much more slowly than it has. Ant is one of the most useful build tools I have ever had the pleasure to use." - Joe Ottinger

### Ant keeps on winning!

### June 9th, 2003: Ant wins the JavaWorld Editors' Choice Award

Ant has won the JavaWorld Editors' Choice Award for

Most Useful Java Community-Developed Technology

for the second time in a row! Read the full article -- or jump directly to the bit about our award `:)`

### Ant 1.5.3

### April 9, 2003 - Ant 1.5.3 Available

Apache Ant 1.5.3 is now available for download.

### Ant 1.5.3 Beta 1

### March 25, 2003 - Ant 1.5.3 Beta 1 Available

Apache Ant 1.5.3 Beta 1 is now available for download. Please download it and try it out. If you have any issues please raise a bug on BugZilla or send an email to the Ant dev mailing list

### Ant 1.5.2

### March 3, 2003 - Ant 1.5.2 Available!

The final version of Ant 1.5.2 is now available for download. If you have any feedback on this release, feel free to join the discussion on the dev and user mailing lists.

### Ant 1.5.2Beta1

### February 21, 2003 - Ant 1.5.2 Beta1 Available!

The first beta version of Ant 1.5.2 is now available for download at http://www.apache.org/dist/ant/v1.5.2beta1. If you have any feedback on the beta feel free to join the discussion on the dev and user mailing lists.

### Ant Top Level Project

### November 18, 2002

The Apache board created the Apache Ant top level project. Ant has now migrated from the Jakarta project into an Apache project of its own. This is primarily an organizational change and will not affect the technical aspects of the project. Ant retains a strong association with the Apache Jakarta project. One effect of this change is that the Ant webpage is now located at http://ant.apache.org

### Ant 1.5.1

### October 3, 2002 - Ant 1.5.1 Available !

The final version of Ant 1.5.1 is now available for download. If you have any feedback on this release, feel free to join the discussion on the ant-dev and ant-user mailing lists.

### Ant 1.5.1Beta1

### August 19, 2002 - Ant 1.5.1 Beta1 Available !

The first beta version of Ant 1.5.1 is now available for download. If you have any feedback on the beta feel free to join the discussion on the ant-dev and ant-user mailing lists.

### Ant 1.5

### July 15, 2002 - Fix for Cygwin problem in wrapper script available

The wrapper script of Ant 1.5 needs to be replaced with a new version for Cygwin users. See the FAQ for details.

### July 10, 2002 - Ant 1.5 Released!

The final version of Ant 1.5 is now available for download. If you have any feedback on this release, feel free to join the discussion on the ant-dev and ant-user mailing lists.

### Ant 1.5Beta3

### June 24, 2002 - Ant 1.5 Beta3 Available!

The third beta version of Ant 1.5 is now available for download. If you have any feedback on the beta feel free to join the discussion on the ant-dev and ant-user mailing lists.

### Ant 1.5Beta2

### June 1, 2002 - Ant 1.5 Beta2 Available!

The second beta version of Ant 1.5 is now available for download. If you have any feedback on the beta feel free to join the discussion on the ant-dev and ant-user mailing lists.

### Ant 1.5Beta1

### Ant 1.5 Beta1 Available !

The first beta version of Ant 1.5 is now available for download. If you have any feedback on the beta feel free to join the discussion on the ant-dev and ant-user mailing lists.

### Ant wins again!

### Apr 29, 2002: Ant wins Software Development magazine's 2002 Productivity Award.

Ant has been awarded a 2002 Productivity Award by Software Development magazine. Read the press release for more information and the full list of winners.

### Ant has won!

### Mar 26, 2002: Ant wins the JavaWorld Editors' Choice Award

Ant has won the JavaWorld Editors' Choice Award for Most Useful Java Community-Developed Technology. Read the full article -- or jump directly to the bit about our award `:)`

### Java 1.4 Support

### Feb 15, 2002: Java 1.4 Support

Java 1.4 has now been released by Sun. The latest Ant source supports the new `assert` statement in the compiler task via the `source` attribute. It also contains a compatibility fix needed for some ant tasks on Java 1.4 over Windows XP. If you have problems running Ant 1.4.1 on WinXP/Java 1.4, please use a recent build or compile your own version from the source tree.

### See our new logo!

### Have a look at our new cool logo!

### Ant 1.4.1

### 11 October 2001 Ant 1.4.1 released !

Please visit the download area.

### Ant 2.0 Requirements Collected - Next is Design

A commented version of the collected user requirements is now available here - it is not complete as some details still have to be defined, but it should give you an idea of what Ant2 is going to look like.

Several details can only be decided in the light of real code and prototypes. Several people are working on prototypes (that can be found in Ant's CVS module in the proposals directory) and discussion is going on on the Ant-Dev mailing list.

### Best-Practices Profile of Ant at Sun's Dot-Com Builder

Sun has released an introductory article on Ant on their Dot-Com Builder site on May 30 2001. See http://dcb.sun.com/practices/profiles/ant.jsp

### Ant 2.0 Requirements

Ant has been in use for quite some time and has been used in ways never conceived when it was originally written. While Ant 1.x has continued to sucessfully evolve and grow, there are a number of limitations and inconsistencies that are now apparent and which need to be addressed.

As we continue to evolve and enhance Ant 1.x, it is now time to define what Ant 2.0 will encompass. Ant 2.0 will be a major rearchitecting of Ant. It has a number of goals including:

- Define the "contract" with build file writers to which Ant will be bound.
- Define the "contract" between the Ant core and Task writers.
- Make Ant more easily extendable by allowing additional tasks to be "dropped" in.
- Allow Ant to function as a component to simplify integration with GUIs and IDEs.
- Make Ant more regular and logical.

It is expected that Ant 2.0 will break Ant 1.x based build files. The intention is to make this the last time that will happen.

To advance the definition of Ant, user requirements are now being accepted on the Ant-Dev mailing list. Any requirement will be accepted for consideration. The requirements are being collected into a document which is available on-line. New features will be excepted until March 21st, 2001. At that time, each requirement will be discussed for inclusion in an Ant 2.0 requirement document.

For your reference some of the goals which have shaped the development of Ant 1.x are available here. These continue to be relevant to Ant 2.0.

If you want to shape the future of Ant, join the Ant-Dev mailing list and contribute your ideas.

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