Look into Gradle and Maven as alternative build systems for metrics code bases
We recently had some trouble with our use of Ant where we manage dependencies manually (#31172 (moved)). We briefly considered upgrading dependencies manually (#31193 (moved)), but that turned out to be harder than expected. We then considered using Ant together with Ivy for external dependency management (#31326 (moved)), which is under review at the time of creating this ticket.
The next step would be to switch from Ant (and Ivy) to Maven or Gradle. Without having worked with either of the two, it seems like Maven would be a tad bit harder to switch to than Gradle. But we should look into both tools much more closely when making this decision.
Regardless of the choice between the two tools, when we switch, we should think about simplifying our build processes and also consider how they work together with our release and deployment processes.
For example, I still think we should question having six repositories (metrics-base, metrics-lib, collector, onionoo, exonerator, metrics-web) that all depend on each other one way or the other.
I don't think we'll have time for this switch in the next months. But what we can do is collect thoughts on this topic on this ticket.