Design

Tooling to build applications that run on the JVM must be able to:

• Resolve, fetch, and deploy Maven artifacts.
• Isolate build component classpaths from the project classpath.
• Manage the flow of source files to compiled artifacts on disk.
• Provide some notion of module, the building block of the build process.
• Provide a mechanism by which one can define new modules.
• Provide a way to arrange modules to form a build process.

Additionally, the following characteristics are desirable:

• Ergonomic command line interface and online help documentation.
• Minimize or eliminate redundant or arbitrary configuration for user.
• Powerful process-building and extension capabilities.
• A simple and easy to understand process model.
• Minimize or eliminate coupling between modules, and between module configurations.