Why do we need Gradle in Java? [duplicate]

Question

For past 4 years, I have been programming with Eclipse (for Java), and Visual Studio Express (for C#). The IDEs mentioned always seemed to provide every facility a programmer might ask for (related to programming, of course).

Lately I have been hearing about something called "build tools". I heard they're used almost in all kind of real world development. What are they exactly? What problems are they designed to solve? How come I never needed them in past four years? Are they kind of command-line stripped down IDEs?

Answer 1

What are build tools?

Build tools are programs that automate the creation of executable applications from source code (e.g., .apk for an Android app). Building incorporates compiling,linking and packaging the code into a usable or executable form.

Basically build automation is the act of scripting or automating a wide variety of tasks that software developers do in their day-to-day activities like:

1. Downloading dependencies.
2. Compiling source code into binary code.
3. Packaging that binary code.
4. Running tests.
5. Deployment to production systems.

Why do we use build tools or build automation?

In small projects, developers will often manually invoke the build process. This is not practical for larger projects, where it is very hard to keep track of what needs to be built, in what sequence and what dependencies there are in the building process. Using an automation tool allows the build process to be more consistent.

Various build tools available(Naming only few):

1. For java - Ant,Maven,Gradle.
2. For .NET framework - NAnt
3. c# - MsBuild.

For further reading you can refer following links:

1.Build automation

2.List of build automation software

Thanks.