In Glassfish V3 the system is highly modularized. Compiling one
module against another might mean using static constants eg:
// module B using org.glassfish.foo.bar from another module A
import org.glassfish.foo.bar.CONSTANT1;
...
doSomething( CONSTANT1 );
...
If I understand correctly, java constants are compiled into the
resulting bytecode.
So if the constant is later changed in the defining module, code
compiled against that module does *not* pick up the new value unless
it is recompiled.
In short, in a modular system, should constant values be fixed at
compile time, or picked up dynamically at runtime? If they are to be
dynamic, then our constants need to be written as methods eg:
public static String getCONSTANT1();
*not*
public static final String CONSTANT1 = "val"
Of course, there might not be a hard and fast rule. But if a module
is newly-built and has new values for its constants, it might be
reasonable to expect dependent modules to use the new values.
---
Lloyd L Chambers
lloyd.chambers_at_sun.com
Sun Microsystems, Inc