Foreword

When you create a new technology like Gradle, one of the most critical stages of development has nothing to do with writing code. Once the initial versions of your project are used by thousands of developers and a community starts to assemble around it, the challenge becomes communicating with a much larger audience of users who will use the project and pass judgment on its merits, and growing the size of the community ten-fold or a thousand-fold. Gradle has already amassed a large audience, and we’ve seen tremendous growth over the last two years, but we’re getting ready for a still larger influx of end-users.

Therefore, the importance of having a good book cannot be overstated. Developers with a range of skills and abilities need to be able to pick up a book that’s easy to understand and which can impart both the syntax and the philosophy behind the tool. Only then will they be able to confidently grow the community that can educate itself using a single, authoritative reference for Gradle. Gradle in Action is that book. Additionally, this book gives new Gradle users a very good glimpse into how Gradle fits into a larger view of continuous delivery.