Why do not use .java instead of .xml as config file?

[anderson]

Why do not use .java instead of .xml as config file?
For example:
My config file is C:\\T.java
In the static block of class T we can our stuff.

Use com.sun.tools.javac.Main to compile T.java and load the class
when the container starts.

	/* 
	 *compile the config file T.java 
	 */
	String dirStr = "C:\\";
	String srcFileName = "T.java";
	File dir = new File(dirStr);
	String[] javacArgs = new String[] {
				"-d", 
				dirStr,
				new File(dir, srcFileName).getAbsolutePath()
	};
	System.out.println("Compiling ...");
	Main.compile(javacArgs);
		
	/* 
	 *load the class and the static block of class T will be executed
	 */	
	URL url = new URL("file", null, dirStr+"/");
	URL[] arr = new URL[]{url};
	URLClassLoader loader = new URLClassLoader(arr, Thread.currentThread().getContextClassLoader());
		
	Class.forName("T", true, loader);

config file T.java instead .xml

public class T {
	static {
	 	 /* 
	 	  * do some configuration
	 	  */
		System.out.println("OOOKKK");	
	}
}

[Andreas Senft]

That is a possibility. However, I have, again a compilation step which is not there if I use an XML configuration (or another supported format).
If, for some reason, I want to do configuration programmatically in java code I can do that without an additional compilation step, so I do not see an advantage here.

Just my opinion,
Andreas

[manifoldronin]

If you want to avoid XML (for whatever reason, let's not go there. ), one of the dynamic script languages Spring supports might be a better idea than Java itself.

[irbouho]

There seems to be some work in-progress to provide Java Configuration option for Spring.