The document discusses build tools and Apache Ant in particular. It explains that build tools automate compiling, linking, copying files and other tasks needed to build a program from source code. Apache Ant is a free, open source build tool written in Java. It uses XML configuration files to define and execute build tasks like compiling, packaging and deploying Java applications. Key benefits of Ant include being cross-platform, extensible via Java classes, and using readable XML configuration files instead of shell scripts.