Gradle seems to be much more popular for new projects than Maven these days.<p>I do like that the build files look smaller, but they also look like magic incantations. I can't understand them the way I can understand POM files.<p>When I learned Maven, I could find properly structured material that explained what was going on, and taught it concept by concept, incrementally. There are lots of plugins, but they mostly follow a regular, predictable structure.<p>Gradle, on the other hand, has documentation all over the place. The official documentation is quite non-linear. Each plugin seems to define its own DSL, making discoverability a pain.<p>In summary, even though I can eventually find my way around Gradle builds on a case-by-case basis, I can't form a coherent mental model of how it works. The syntax in particular seems to lend itself to way too much "magic."<p>Is there a good, unofficial source that can help me master Gradle? A book, maybe? I hate using tech that I don't understand.<p>I struggle with it every time I come across a Gradle project. It makes me feel like dealing with autotools again.