Ant , hvad er det ?

Hey

Jeg har gang i et projekt, med at kode en mp3 afspiller i java,
til lyden vil jeg bruge FMOD (www.fmod.org) eller rettere en udgave konverteret med JavaHPP.

Det eneste eksempel der er med er sådan en xml-fil her:

Kode:
===========================================

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
        <!--
    Ant Project to deploy FMOD Samples as Java Webstart (aka JNLP) Apps
        -->
<project basedir="." default="all" name="FMOD Java JNLP Deployment">
        <!--
    *******************************************************************
    important project properties
    *******************************************************************
        -->
    <property name="destdir" location="./out"/>

    <property name="fmodjava.version" value="1.0"/>

    <!-- location of FMOD Java compiled classes -->
    <property name="fmodjava.jar" location="../libs/fmodjava.jar"/>
    <!-- location of Windows FMOD Java runtime DLL -->
    <property name="fmodjava.win.dll" location="../libs/fmodjava.dll"/>
    <!-- where the actual FMOD DLL is located for Windows runtime -->
    <property name="fmod.win.dll" location="../libs/fmod.dll"/>
    <!-- location of Mac OS X FMOD Java runtime DLL -->
    <property name="fmodjava.mac.dll" location="../libs/libfmodjava.jnilib"/>

    <!-- if true, the <signjar> task will be verbose -->
    <property name="sign.verbose" value="true"/>

    <!-- keystore alias for key used to sign jars -->
    <property name="sign.alias" value="pointy fmod key"/>
    <!-- keystore password for key used to sign jars -->
    <property name="sign.keypass" value="123fmod"/>
    <!-- password for keystore itself -->
    <property name="sign.storepass"    value="coalface!123keystore"/>

    <property name="fmodjava.codebase" value="http://coalface2.private.net/opensource/fmodjava"/>
    <property name="fmodjava.href" value="http://coalface2.private.net/opensource/fmodjava"/>
    <!--
        *******************************************************************
            project targets
    *******************************************************************
        -->
    <target name="all" depends="jarlibs,signlibs,copysrc"/>

    <target name="do_timestamp"><tstamp/><echoproperties prefix="ant"/></target>
    <!--
        *******************************************************************
        (1) jar together the FMOD classes and the Javahpp runtime stuff.
    *******************************************************************
        -->
    <target name="jarlibs" depends="do_timestamp">

        <jar destfile="${destdir}/fmodjava.unsigned.jar" compress="true" update="false" index="true">
           
            <!-- the FMOD Java runtime stuff -->
            <zipfileset src="${fmodjava.jar}" includes="**/*.*"/>
           
            <!-- make the manifest automagically, sealing all but example packages -->
            <manifest>
                <attribute name="Built-By" value="${user.name}"/>
                <attribute name="Implementation-Version" value="${fmodjava.version} ${TODAY}"/>
               
                <attribute name="Sealed" value="true"/>
               
                <section name="org/fmod/examples">
                    <attribute name="Sealed" value="false"/>
                </section>
            </manifest>
        </jar>
        <!--
                *******************************************************************
            (2)    jar the native libraries for the various platforms
        *******************************************************************
                -->
        <echo message="fmod    dll is at : ${fmod.win.dll}"/>
        <echo message="fmodjava dll is at : ${fmodjava.win.dll}"/>
        <echo message="fmodjava jnilib is at : ${fmodjava.mac.dll}"/>
       
        <jar destfile="${destdir}/fmodjavalibs-win.unsigned.jar" compress="true" update="false">
            <fileset file="${fmod.win.dll}"/>
            <fileset file="${fmodjava.win.dll}"/>
        </jar>

        <jar destfile="${destdir}/fmodjavalibs-mac.unsigned.jar" compress="true" update="false">
            <fileset file="${fmodjava.mac.dll}"/>
        </jar>
    </target>
    <!--
        *******************************************************************
        (3) use SignJar - to sign the deployment jar files.
    *******************************************************************
        -->
    <target name="signlibs" depends="jarlibs">

        <signjar jar="${destdir}/fmodjava.unsigned.jar" signedjar="${destdir}/fmodjava.jar" alias="${sign.alias}" keypass="${sign.keypass}" storepass="${sign.storepass}" verbose="${sign.verbose}"/>
        <signjar jar="${destdir}/fmodjavalibs-win.unsigned.jar" signedjar="${destdir}/fmodjavalibs-win.jar" alias="${sign.alias}" keypass="${sign.keypass}" storepass="${sign.storepass}" verbose="${sign.verbose}"/>
        <signjar jar="${destdir}/fmodjavalibs-mac.unsigned.jar" signedjar="${destdir}/fmodjavalibs-mac.jar" alias="${sign.alias}" keypass="${sign.keypass}" storepass="${sign.storepass}" verbose="${sign.verbose}"/>

        <delete file="${destdir}/fmodjava.unsigned.jar" failonerror="false"/>
        <delete file="${destdir}/fmodjavalibs-win.unsigned.jar" failonerror="false"/>
        <delete file="${destdir}/fmodjavalibs-mac.unsigned.jar" failonerror="false"/>
    </target>

    <target name="copysrc">
        <copy todir="${destdir}">
            <fileset dir="./src"/>
        </copy>
        <!-- fix codebase and href properties in JNLP files -->
        <replaceregexp match="JNLPCODEBASE" replace="${fmodjava.codebase}">
            <fileset dir="${destdir}" includes="*.jnlp" />
          </replaceregexp>
        <replaceregexp match="JNLPHREF" replace="${fmodjava.href}">
            <fileset dir="${destdir}" includes="*.jnlp" />
          </replaceregexp>
    </target>
</project>

===========================================

Det jeg undre mig over er:

"Ant Project to deploy FMOD Samples as Java Webstart (aka JNLP) Apps"

Hvad er Ant for noget , og hvad bruges det til ?
Har kigget lidt på suns sider, men kan ikke så godt forstå ideen i det.