Thanks Christian for your explanation. Your observation regarding Glassfish 3.1 is very helpful since I was trying to
test this on Glassfish 3.1 and was experiencing something against the specifications.
Regarding @WebInitParam annotations: I believe both of the following will do the job. Correct me if wrong.
@WebServlet (name="A",
urlPatterns={"/next"})
@WebInitParam(name="test",value="annotation")
@WebServlet (name="A", urlPatterns={"/next"}, initParams = {@WebInitParam(name="test",value="annotation")})
Regards/