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Survey finds that incremental Java builds are speeding up


By Alex Handy
October 29, 2009 — 
According to a survey released in October by Zero Turnaround, Java builds are getting faster. The company, which makes development tools, found that Ant and Maven are the most commonly used build tools, and that the average developer now spends less than 10 minutes an hour waiting on builds.

Of more than 500 developers surveyed, 44% stated that their incremental builds took less than 30 seconds; forty percent of respondents reported build times between one minute and three minutes, with the average build time overall being 1.9 minutes.

Thirty-one percent of those surveyed reported that their builds are performed automatically on check-in. Such builds were performed an average of 3.9 times an hour.

Michael Cote, an analyst at RedMonk, said that building Java applications is still a large problem, but developers have learned tricks over the years to shorten build times.

“Most Java projects are quite large, and there's a lot of compiling code involved," he said. "The other thing that makes people complain about it a lot these days is that a lot of practices that fall out of agile require fast coding loops. That loop, if you have to build your code multiple times an hour, can be really bad."

As a result, he said, developers have learned to build smaller portions of their projects at a time, or to compile small pieces of code and inject them into running applications.
 
Cote said that automated builds, such as those used in continuous integration, not only help to speed development, they can also help to keep code clean and sane. He said that running unit tests every hour or after every check-in can stop bad coders from churning out substandard software.

Cote also said that developers are not yet using clouds to build software, despite a number of tools and services now available for such builds. He also said that open-source tools continue to dominate build processes.

“I think when you look at build tools, whatever type of build tools they are, it's very difficult to not be an open-source build tool," he said. "Developers have a pretty low tolerance for paying for software. Vendors usually emphasize things management cares about, like productivity and speed, whereas most developers don't care about that."


Related Search Term(s): Java, Zero Turnaround


Share this link: http://www.sdtimes.com/link/33867
 

Comments

10/29/2009 12:18:08 PM EST

Developers don't care about productivity and speed? I have a hard time believing that any developer would agree with that assertion. The faster a developer gets feedback on his changes, the more likely he is to keep his flow and be highly productive! I think the real reason for the adoption of open-source continuous integration tools is that they work well enough, and no approval processes need to be dealt with. Increasingly you are seeing that commercial CI tool vendors are offering free version to allow teams to get started without upfront costs. Atlassian Bamboo offers a starter license available for a $10 charitable contribution, and other products like TeamCity have free versions too. Products such as CruiseControl and Hudson are widely adopted, but the jury is out as to whether they are truly the best solutions for CI.

United StatesJesse Gibbs


10/29/2009 03:05:01 PM EST

Isn't saying Java builds are getting faster based on the fact they now take, on average, less than 10 minutes a bit like a 400-pound man saying he's skinnier because he lost 5 pounds? It may be true, but it's definitely a stretched truth. If you check out the survey on ZeroTurnaround's site (http://tinyurl.com/ykq3qf9) it seems their point is there's a lot of time being wasted waiting for incremental builds and even more waiting for redeployments in J2E containers (http://tinyurl.com/lpxj6o)

United StatesHarris Powell


10/30/2009 03:06:26 AM EST

I'm glad builds are speeding up. This is nice where PCode is a great fit. If I'm personally needing horsepower though - I turn to compiled stuff.. really compiled - as in to machine code, not PCode. I'm personally an advocate for something that compiles MUCH faster than most compilable languages period (Pcode or binary), runs on multiple platforms directly on the CPUs and at least less layers if on virtual machines: FreePascal.org - The web site doesn't look so great - but that's because everyone is away using the stuff not making the web site pretty LOL :) Pascal isn't a college language anymore - it's on par with C++ all day... and actually more portable.. runs on nintendo, iphone, arm, intel, mac, windows, linux, dos, etc... I think freebsd too among others - really my secret weapon of choice! :) --Jason Seriously - I like Java.. but scripting/pcode to me

United StatesJason P Sage


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