May 2023

Introduction

Welcome to the May 2023 Gradle Build Tool newsletter.

This edition covers the latest Thoughtworks Tech Radar “adopt” recommendation for Gradle Kotlin DSL, news from the community, and the latest Gradle Enterprise release.

From the Community #

Thoughtworks recommends adopting Gradle Kotlin DSL #

Thoughtworks has promoted Gradle Kotlin DSL to “adopt” status in their renowned Technology Radar. The teams at Thoughtworks suggest “[using] Gradle Kotlin DSL as the default for starting new projects using Gradle, preferring it over Groovy.” See the Gradle Kotlin DSL entry for details.

This follows our own announcement last month about Kotlin DSL becoming the default for new Gradle builds, as well as similar announcements from Google and JetBrains.

Blog Posts #

• Keeping IDE Sync Times at Bay: A Historical Perspective - shares how Square boosted performance by 60% based on a range of improvements made to IDE sync times over the years
• 30 Ideas to Reduce Your Gradle Build Times - offers 30 tips that help improve the performance of your Gradle builds
• SourceCompatibility, TargetCompatibility, and JVM Toolchains in Gradle Explained - discusses the differences between defining sourceCompatibility, targetCompatibility and Java toolchain
• Simplify Your Dependency Management with Gradle Version Catalogs in Android - presents a short primer on how to use version catalogs and why they are helpful
• Scala and Kotlin Under One Roof - talks about how to set up a project that has a mix of both Scala and Kotlin code
• JDK 17: Using ParallelGC for the Kotlin Process in Android Builds - shows the impact of using the Parallel GC flag on build performance with APG 8.0.0 and JDK 17

Videos #

• Understanding Gradle #32 – Artifact Transforms - shows how to use Artifact Transforms to turn old Jar files into clean Java Modules
• Why Can You Write Gradle in 2 Different Languages? - offers a historical explanation around why you can configure Gradle in Groovy or Kotlin, and why Kotlin may be a better choice
• Gradle Implementation vs. Compile Dependencies - talks about how to migrate from using the now removed compile dependency configuration to the implementation dependency configuration

Plugins #

• Recursive Wrapper Gradle Plugin - makes it easier to manage the wrapper configuration for included builds

From the Gradle Team #

Major updates added to Gradle Enterprise 2023.1 #

The April launch of Gradle Enterprise 2023.1 was our first major release this year. For engineers, Gradle Enterprise 2023.1:

• Brings observability and insights into Gradle artifact transforms
• Offers a new Build Scan® query language that provides new capabilities for specifying build criteria using complex logical operators
• Provides more insights into Predictive Test Selection (PTS) simulation results
• Makes user access control management more robust

See release notes for details, and stay tuned for the upcoming release of Gradle Enterprise 2023.2!

Internship Programs #

We are excited to announce our participation in two 12-week summer programs where our engineers mentor early-career technologists, empowering them to hone their skills and kick-start their careers:

• 2 people in Major League Hacking Fellowship
• 1 person in Google Summer of Code

Together with our Gradle Fellows Mentorship Program (launched last year), these new programs reflect our commitment to bringing new contributors and increasing diversity in build automation and developer productivity engineering domains.

Careers #

If you share our passion for developer productivity and tooling, consider joining our globally distributed team by checking out our job openings at gradle.com/careers.

For the Gradle Build Tool team, we are currently looking for a Developer Advocate, Security Software Engineer and Developer Productivity Engineer.

Upcoming Events with Gradle #

Check out our free, instructor-led training courses as well as upcoming presentations and keynotes from the globe-trotting Gradle team:

**May 30, **9am - 10am PT: Online Training - Managing Test Failures & Flakiness with Gradle Enterprise

May 31, 9am - 12pm PT: Online Training - Maven Build Cache Deep Dive

June 1, 9am - 11:30am PT: Online Training - Gradle Plugin Development

**June 6, **9am - 12:15pm PT: Online Training - Android Apps with Gradle Build Tool

June 7, 7am - 10:15am PT: Online Training - Android Apps with Gradle Build Tool - EMEA

**June 8, **9am - 11:30am PT: Online Training - Gradle Build Tool Configuration Organization

**June 8-9, **Industry Event - Droidcon - San Francisco, CA

**June 12-15, **Industry Event - DevopsCon - Berlin, Germany

**June 13 , **9am - 12:00pm PT: Online Training - Gradle Build Cache Deep Dive

June 14, 7am - 10:00am PT: Online Training - Gradle Build Cache Deep Dive - EMEA

June 15, **9am - 10am PT: **Online Training - Gradle Enterprise for Developers

**June 15-16, **Community Event - DevOps Days - Birmingham, UK

June 20, 9am - 10am PT: ** **Online Training - Gradle Enterprise for Productivity Engineers

**June 20, **9am - 1:30pm PT: Online Training - Introduction to Gradle Build Tool

**June 20-23, **Industry Event - JCON Europe - Cologne, Germany

**June 22, **7am - 11:30am PT: Online Training - Introduction to Gradle Build Tool - EMEA

**June 27, **9am - 1pm PT: Online Training - JVM Builds with Gradle Build Tool

**June 28, **7am - 11:00am PT: Online Training - JVM Builds with Gradle Build Tool - EMEA

**June 29, **Gradle Hosted Event - London Builds and Bullseyes Happy Hour

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