All, I updated the converter code in xbean-reflect to add support for JAX-RS style string constructors and static factory methods. We weren't so clever to think of this in 2006, but it definitely fits.
Moreover, I don't think we need half of the built-in Converter/PropertyEditor implementations now. Most of them can be deleted with likely a positive speed impact as part of the process of converting is looping over all the built-in Converter/PropertyEditor instances. There's a second startup improvement as well as they are created eagerly via static initializer. I'd love to do a 4.x release of this code. It could be nice to save the deleting of the property editors for a potential XBean 5.x. I'm ok with one or the other or both. I see Łukasz's work which might make for a good 5.x release, so maybe we just do that. Thoughts or preferences? -David
