Hi Sean, Honestly I didn't like the fluent builder because (apart from aesthetically unpleasing upRouter() and a little hack of owner().start())
a) problem with multiline statements (including compromised readability). And to fit it all on a single line would mean unecessary tinkering with checkstyle rules. (And that question about IDE code formatters) b) Size. how many methods should builder have? c) problem with changing api both additions and deletions. (This is inherent in XML based configurations too ) d) What are the correct sequence of method calls? How do you document them? Can you validate the code even before it is run? (Atleast with XML I can have an XML schema that'll stop me from making obvious mistakes.) I don't have anything against "fluent" builders and I am not an ardent fan of XML set of technologies. I rather like the example presented in Fowler's exposition. Here I have tried to bring out the reasons why I gave the fluent builder as highlighted by the tutorial a skip. Cheers Piyush
