Architectural Principles

Introduction

Architectual principles are the overall guiding philosophies that Gradle follows. The following list is not exhaustive but captures key and interesting principles

Principle List

1

Gradle will not make assumptions about how projects should be built.

While we usually think of a build as a series of steps such as clean, check, assemble, ... Those may not always be exhaustive or necessary for a build. Assuming that a build is comprised of such steps may simplify development at the cost of rigidity.

This principle molded the architectural decision to put the standard build steps in a BasePlugin. The usage of the standard steps is not enforced, developers may write their own tasks and dependencies.

2

Gradle will prioritize performance over memory consumption.

In software, the opportunity to sacrifice memory for performance often arises. Gradle will capitalize on such opportunities by prioritizing performance over memory.

This principle molded the architectural decision of having a Gradle Daemon. One of Gradle's main advantage over Maven is its speed (as described in the context view). Part of Gradle's performance can be attributed to the Gradle Daemon which is a lingering build process used to save bootstraping time. In some scenarios, this process can consume gigabytes of memory!