Why is no one using make for Java?

Actually, make can handle the recompilation in one command of all outdated java files. Change the first line if you don't want to compile all files in the directory or want a specific order...

JAVA_FILES:=$(wildcard *.java)
#
# the rest is independent of the directory
#
JAVA_CLASSES:=$(patsubst %.java,%.class,$(JAVA_FILES))

.PHONY: classes
LIST:=

classes: $(JAVA_CLASSES)
        if [ ! -z "$(LIST)" ] ; then \
                javac $(LIST) ; \
        fi

$(JAVA_CLASSES) : %.class : %.java
        $(eval LIST+=$$<)

The fundamental issue with Make and Java is that Make works on the premise that you have specify a dependency, and then a rule to resolve that dependency.

With basic C, that typically "to convert a main.c file to a main.o file, run "cc main.c".

You can do that in java, but you quickly learn something.

Mostly that the javac compiler is slow to start up.

The difference between:

javac Main.java
javac This.java
javac That.java
javac Other.java

and

javac Main.java This.java That.java Other.java

is night and day.

Exacerbate that with hundreds of classes, and it just becomes untenable.

Then you combine that with the fact that java tends to be organized as groups of files in directories, vs C and others which tend towards a flatter structure. Make doesn't have much direct support to working with hierarchies of files.

Make also isn't very good at determining what files are out of date, at a collection level.

With Ant, it will go through and sum up all of the files that are out of date, and then compile them in one go. Make will simply call the java compiler on each individual file. Having make NOT do this requires enough external tooling to really show that Make is not quite up to the task.

That's why alternatives like Ant and Maven rose up.