Jargo

A simplified way of managing Java projects

Table of Contents

• Overview
  • Background
  • Features
• Usage
• Example
• Installation

Overview

Jargo is a simple project manager for Java, heavily inspired by Rust's cargo.

Background

The idea for Jargo came from my dislike of having to use javac and java repeatedly while working with Java projects on the command line. After I began using Rust, I saw the benefits of a proper package manager, so I looked to Maven and Gradle to handle similar functionality in Java. Both of those options provided far more features and complexity than I needed, so I took matters into my own hands. What originally began as two aliases in my shell's configuration file grew rapidly into Jargo.

Note: Jargo is not intended to be a replacement for Maven or Gradle, by any means. This was created to make my life easier when working with Java on the command line, that's all.

Features

I wanted Jargo to make project management simple, so I made sure it had the essentials:

• Create a new Java project
• Compile the project if source files have been edited
• Run the project in a one simple command

As I continued to write this, I discovered a few more features that were quite simple to implement and made the whole program feel a bit nicer, so I threw them in.

Usage

The basic syntax is jargo [OPTIONS] [COMMANDS], which is quite similar to cargo (for good reason).

Here are a few of the basic commands and options:

• jargo new <PROJECT> [OPTIONS] - Create and initialize a new Java project
• jargo init - Initialize an existing project to be compatible with Jargo
• jargo build - Compile the current project
• jargo run [ARGUMENTS] - Execute the project with the supplied arguments, compiling if necessary
• jargo clean - Removes all *.class files
• jargo doc - Generate Javadocs for the current project

Example

Below is an example usage to create a run a basic Hello World application.

Installation

I'll put more in this section once I have this more fleshed out. But for now, here's the steps:

1. Download the jargo script
2. Mark it as executable by chmod u+x jargo
3. Create a symlink so you can execute it anywhere ln -s /path/to/jargo /usr/local/bin

If you want to use the --jfx flag when running or compiling, you need to have $PATH_TO_FX set in your shell's environment variables. This should be the path to the appropriate version of JavaFX's lib/ folder.

Of course, you need Java installed :)