Implementation Patterns - using annotations

[Sergey Petunin]

Hello Kent,

My question is, does your book introduce any patterns for usage of metadata (annotations)? As I can tell, this feature, implemented in many modern languages, is definitely useful for explaining your intentions not only to the compiler or to some high-level framework, but to other programmers also. What do you think?

Thanks,

Serge

[Kent Beck]

Dear Serge,

I agree that annotations can be an excellent way of communicating intent, especially as the fashion moves from object-oriented frameworks to domain specific languages (e.g. JUnit 3.8 vs. JUnit 4). However, I wasn't confident that I had enough experience with annotations to explain them well, so I left them out of this book. If I did a second edition I would definitely include them.

Regards,

Kent Beck
Three Rivers Institute