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To get the most out of Gradle, it is best to also learn the basics of the Groovy language, but it is not necessary to start writing Gradle scripts. However, using the Groovy syntax makes it easier to express the code intent and we need less boilerplate code than with Java. In fact, we could write a Groovy class file with Java syntax and it will compile. The syntax is closely related to the Java syntax. Groovy makes it easy to work with collections, has closures, and a lot of useful features. Groovy is a language for the Java Virtual Machine ( JVM), such as Java and Scala.
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As the DSL is based on Groovy, we can write Groovy code to describe a build and use the power and expressiveness of the Groovy language. The DSL provides a flexible language that can be extended by us. Gradle uses a Domain Specific Language ( DSL) based on Groovy to declare builds. Declarative builds and convention over configuration In this article, we will explain what Gradle is and how to use it in our development projects. Enterprise companies such as LinkedIn and Netflix also use Gradle. Gradle is already used by large open source projects such as Spring, Hibernate, and Grails. This means that we can rely on the defaults if we don’t want something special, but we can still can use the flexibility to adapt a build to certain custom needs. Gradle is flexible, but has sensible defaults for most projects. With Gradle, we can automate compiling, testing, packaging, and deployment of our software or any other types of projects. The build system will always follow the steps that we have defined, so we can concentrate on writing the actual code and don’t have to worry about the other steps.
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The big advantage is that we have a repeatable sequence of steps. We can automate these steps by using a build system. When we develop a software, we write, compile, test, package, and finally, distribute the code.
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