Friday, January 4, 2008

Retroweaver....You will need this for sure

As a seasoned Java Developer and as a Consultant, you often get to work on projects or assignments where you have to deal with re-writing existing applications using new technologies , say for example Struts to JSF, EJB2.1 to EJB3.0 , web application to Portal etc..and since JDK1.5 features like Generics,Annotations,Enhanced For Loop,Enums have been widely accepted in J2EE application development,often we need to make sure that your Java bytecode is compatible with 1.4 versions JVM and your Boss asks you to make sure your code compiles well in JVM 1.5 as well as 1.4 version JVM.
So what do you do?? Instead showing tortured facial expressions and be in a perplexed state, just cooly respond back with a suggestion saying ," Why dont we use
Retroweaver to achieve this"? To make him understand what Retroweaver can do for you,give him a synopsis like this,

"Retroweaver is a bytecode weaver that enables you to take advantage of the new Java 1.5 language features, while still retaining total binary compatability with 1.4 virtual machines. Retroweaver operates by transforming Java class files compiled by a 1.5 compiler into version 1.4 class files which can then be run on any 1.4 virtual machine." This will surely extend your contract for 2 more weeks.....

Retroweaver supports most 1.5 features while running on 1.4 like generics,extended for loops,static imports,autoboxing/unboxing,varargs,enumerations,annotations

So, when your favorite vendor tells you that their application server won't be supporting JDK 1.5 just yet, or your customers won't have JDK 1.5 for years to come, or your manager refuses to begin development using a newer JDK, put Retroweaver to work for you.

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2 comments:

  1. Thanks for letting me n others know about these other alternatives as well.

    ReplyDelete