Comments on: Annotations have been more successful than XML http://www.altuure.com/2008/03/10/annotations-than-xml/ Mert Can Akkan's java tips,options, news... Wed, 03 Mar 2010 10:08:16 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: altuure http://www.altuure.com/2008/03/10/annotations-than-xml/#comment-35 altuure Fri, 14 Mar 2008 11:51:31 +0000 http://www.altuure.com/2008/03/10/annotations-than-xml/#comment-35 yes annotations are great because it bring/binds your java code and related api configuration in a single file Easy to maintain:easy to read (self documenting) but it DO NOT MEAN 'XML sucks' ,in fact it means use XML where it is necessary. eg: for interoperability yes annotations are great because it bring/binds your java code and related api configuration in a single file

Easy to maintain:easy to read (self documenting)

but it DO NOT MEAN ‘XML sucks’ ,in fact it means use XML where it is necessary. eg: for interoperability

]]> By: Willie Wheeler http://www.altuure.com/2008/03/10/annotations-than-xml/#comment-34 Willie Wheeler Thu, 13 Mar 2008 18:53:17 +0000 http://www.altuure.com/2008/03/10/annotations-than-xml/#comment-34 I am a fan of annotations too, but I think your last point is key: annotations and XML are complements. Sometimes the advantages to distributing code outweigh the advantages to centralizing it and vice versa. Annotations give us a nice mechanism for choosing the former approach in those cases where it makes sense. I agree that good cases can be made for JPA, Hibernate, JAXB, and even other areas such as Spring transactions. Javadoc is another example where the distribution makes a lot of sense. But there are also examples where centralization makes sense. Consider properties files for message externalization (e.g., messages.properties and that sort of thing). People want to do this so they can easily internationalize their apps, or so they can easily review the messages for quality/usability, etc. The skill sets involved are more typically associated with a functional specialist than with a general developer. And so here it's more sensible to have a single file where the functional specialist can go in and review the messages in one place. I am a fan of annotations too, but I think your last point is key: annotations and XML are complements. Sometimes the advantages to distributing code outweigh the advantages to centralizing it and vice versa. Annotations give us a nice mechanism for choosing the former approach in those cases where it makes sense. I agree that good cases can be made for JPA, Hibernate, JAXB, and even other areas such as Spring transactions. Javadoc is another example where the distribution makes a lot of sense.

But there are also examples where centralization makes sense. Consider properties files for message externalization (e.g., messages.properties and that sort of thing). People want to do this so they can easily internationalize their apps, or so they can easily review the messages for quality/usability, etc. The skill sets involved are more typically associated with a functional specialist than with a general developer. And so here it’s more sensible to have a single file where the functional specialist can go in and review the messages in one place.

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