A-A-P

A-A-P is a computer program used primarily to download, build and install software. It executes what are called "recipes", which are similar to s, but significantly more powerful. It has integrated support for uploading and downloading files; aside from automatically downloading a source distribution, it can also be used for website maintenance.
A-A-P is written and can be scripted in the Python language.
Comparison with Make
A-A-P was created because Bram Moolenaar saw some classic properties of as problematic and was therefore looking for a replacement. Make uses the time stamp to determine whether a target to be created is already up-to-date or needs to be updated. However, time stamps are not a reliable means. A-A-P uses a signature (checksum) instead. In addition, Make is very dependent on the platform used. Even porting a Makefile from one Unix system to another can present numerous challenges. Porting to a non-Unix system, e.g., Windows, represents an additional challenge. One of the reasons is that the capabilities of the Make tool extend to the creation automation, but not to the functionality required for this, so that external programs (shell commands) have to be used. Similar to Apache Ant, A-A-P wants to make calling external programs as superfluous as possible by using as much functionality as possible and thereby increasing portability.
Comparison with Ant
In Bram Moolenar's view, A-A-P has the advantage over Ant that it is not based on and thus only requires a comparatively small installation of A-A-P, otherwise a Java virtual machine would have to be available. In addition, Ant is only suitable to a limited extent for translating and programs. Ant's strengths lie in the translation of Java-based software and the processing of XML, e.g., using XSLT.
Spread
A-A-P is currently rarely used. The predominant build automation tools are still Ant and Make.
Agide, the A-A-P GUI IDE, is a modular development framework. Editing, building and debugging with different combinations of programs can theoretically be combined, though only the Vim (vi clone) editor, A-A-P's "recipe" build instructions and the GDB debugger are currently supported.
The project leader for A-A-P is Bram Moolenaar, author of Vim, a text editor which is very popular among programmers.
A-A-P is not an acronym.

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