title: What is the purpose of Gradle?
body: <p>I could use a little help understanding the concepts behind Gradle(plugin v 0.7) in the context of Android Studio 0.4.0. I have not used Gradle before and it's causing me nothing but problems. I'm not seeing its purpose/benefit because I don't know enough about it.</p>
  
  <p>Some specific questions I have</p>
  
  <ol>
  <li><p>What are these dependencies? I'm making a simple app with a
  navigation drawer, targeted to API 11+ where it should be natively
  supported. What dependencies could I be using?</p></li>
  <li><p>What is a Gradle wrapper? What changes, if any, does it make to the completed application?</p></li>
  <li><p>Why does Gradle need to be online constantly? I don't have
  internet access on my personal laptop when I'm at work. It's gotten
  to the point that I can't run or test my app because Gradle can't
  resolve some resource without internet access.</p></li>
  <li><p>Why is it important that Gradle uses Groovy? I have searched
  around the internet and that tends to be something people like about
  Gradle but they don't usually explain why Groovy is important or
  what it does for an Android app.</p></li>
  </ol>
  
  <p>Sometimes it's tough as an intermediate programmer as information tends to be overly simple or overly complex. Aside from my specific questions, any additional information you can provide would be useful. I'm not looking to debate the pros and cons of Gradle vs other tools that may do the same thing, I'd just like to know more about Gradle and its use so I can make informed decisions.</p>
  
  <p>Thanks</p>