title: maven pom's resource element
body: <p>i am new to maven and came across the resources section. The reference for the maven project descriptor (version 4.0) states that "this element describes all of the classpath resources associated with a project or unit tests" (<a href="http://maven.apache.org/ref/3.0.4/maven-model/maven.html#class_resource" rel="noreferrer">link</a>). However this description i do not understand/seems to abstract for me. Why would i want to describe classpath resources? How does it affect the projects lifecycle?</p>
  
  <p>matthias</p>