I have a hard time finding documentation/tutorials or just getting a dependency overview without going into some spiralling maven-nightmare.
I even have trouble getting the examples to work, as its an endless compile,run,search,repeat routine. Can anyone recommend some information resources for someone not succombing to the maven-pressure ?:)
Rather than downloading each missing resource, try to add repositories to your settings.xml that contain many of the resources you need.
This tool can help you locate repositories that have a given resource.
Specifically, the JavaNet repository has many of the previously "Restricted Sun" resources not available in the default global repository.
What's wrong with the Camel distribution archive, which includes all the camel jars and all the dependent libraries as well?
I have a hard time finding documentation/tutorials or just getting a dependency overview without going into some spiralling maven-nightmare.
Whatever your opinions on Maven are, the fact is that having some understanding of Maven would help you a lot, especially since many projects are using it and and even more especially in the particular case of Apache Camel which has a myriad of modules.
I even have trouble getting the examples to work, as its an endless compile, run, search, repeat routine. Can anyone recommend some information resources for someone not succombing to the maven-pressure
The fun part is that this would be extremely easy with Maven but never mind. Go to the maven generated website, look at the Camel :: Examples modules, click on any of the sample and check the Dependencies (under Project Information). And good luck with the manual setup of the classpath because each project has a decent bunch of dependencies if you take the transitive one into account :)
Update: As pointed out in another answer, the samples actually come with an Ant build.xml. Or you could use MOP to spit the class path for you or even directly run executable classes like this:
mop run org.apache.camel:camel-example-pojo-messaging org.apache.camel.spring.Main
Any of these options would be a lot easier than setting up the class path manually.
Nearly all examples have an ANT build.xml file as well, and there is a README.txt file telling you how to run the examples.
And if are not into learning how to Maven you could consider James Strachans newest tool called mop which is a command line launcher to run Java stuff. It can transparently download and use maven and its deps. So its just a matter of installing mop and using it to run the examples.
I think the real answer is that you either choose to become a disciple of the maven cult because apache is their church or you continue with the compile, run, search, repeat routine and then publish your results for the rest of us who are in the same boat and don't want to drink the kool-aid.