Core Java, Vol. II-Advanced Features, 12th Edition

Chapter 8. Scripting, Compiling, and Annotation Processing

In this chapter

• 8.1 Scripting for the Java Platform

• 8.2 The Compiler API

• 8.3 Using Annotations

• 8.4 Annotation Syntax

• 8.5 Standard Annotations

• 8.6 Source-Level Annotation Processing

• 8.7 Bytecode Engineering

This chapter introduces three techniques for processing code. The scripting API lets you invoke code in a scripting language such as JavaScript or Groovy. You can use the compiler API when you want to compile Java code inside your application. Annotation processors operate on Java source or class files that contain annotations. As you will see, there are many applications for annotation processing, ranging from simple diagnostics to “bytecode engineering”—the insertion of bytecodes ...