If you hate the fact that you are doing programming like tasks with XML in Ant, consider using JavaScript if you don't want to write new custom Java classes to use as targets. I would probably opt for new targets but some people seem to prefer scripting languages so here you go:
JavaScript and Ant
In general I try to keep the configuration in the XML file separate from the executable code, which is why I would opt for custom Java class targets configured by XML, rather than try to incorporate executable code into an XML file. That's just me.
I also read you can integrate Groovy with Ant.
