Option to remove the GroovyObject dependency and compile to 'pure' Java

I am closing this as "Won't Fix" because at the moment Groovy does not intend to create binaries that can be sued without Groovy. Using the right tool for the job is the right way and I somehow doubt, that using Groovy for this is the right way. I already mentioned Janino, I think that this will do the job much better. Groovy is no bytecode generation framework.

Whilst I completely respect this design decision, the suggesion to use Janino seems a little off the mark? Janino describes itself as 'not intended to be a development tool, but an embedded compiler for run-time compilation purposes'?

If I may just prod a little further:

• Groovy is pitched as 'compiles straight to Java bytecode'. I think finding that it still requires over a megabyte of runtime libraries may be a gotcha
• GroovyBeans are a very good 'tool for the job' for defining JPA entity beans, Hibernate models etc.

I am not asking for a 'bytecode generation framework': I am asking for an alternative language to Java that compiles to, and runs on, the JVM but that, as a language, has a slightly different set of design goals than Java and so is nicer than Java for certain situations.

you can of course use the eclipse compiler as well, it is available as separate download. Or javac should be possible too. I just mentioned janino, because it most probably does what you need.

If it is stated that Groovy compiles straight to Java bytecode, it does mean that there is no interpreter working on some kind of AST. Ever thought of enums without the java.lang.Enum base class? Even if it is bytecode, it does not mean it is independent of other classes.

Extending GroovyObject or not makes a big difference when it comes to methods and properties.

If I understand you right, then you want to have the ability to write groovy code without the class being a GroovyObject. But then you still need the library, because all the neat things Groovy is doing are inside this 1MB big runtime lib. You can loose that lib only if you are not doing anything that Groovy does, or by inlining... in the end it does not matter, you get just a subset of Groovy, not really what Groovy makes groovy.

Even if Groovy will somewhere down the road get a static mode of some kind the runtime will most probably still be needed, because not all functions would be inlined then.

Groovy is able to interact with java quite nice, so you have always the possibility to create beans in Java and use them from Groovy. You can even create these Beans at runtime, can hook in the runtime compilation process and other things... But all in all it makes no sense without the Groovy lib.

Fair enough. Thank you for at least considering my request, and for all your hard work developing the Groovy product.

I look forward to using Groovy in my projects.

Kind regards,

Richard.