Well, Scott Stanchfield had started some work on this -
http://www.javadude.com/tools/importifier/index.html
Also here is my post from few months ago -
There is a perpetual controversy about wild card vs specific
imports :
import java.awt.*;
vs
import java.awt.Frame;
import java.awt.Panel;
etc.
The information about which classes are statically linked
is available in the .class file. This information could be
used (post succesful compile) to modify the source file to
expand/collapse the list of wildcard imports to the specific
imports. And also get rid of unused imports.
For example,
Say, the programmer has the following import statement -
import java.awt.*;
import java.util.Vector;
could be transformed to -
//*@@*/ import java.awt.*; /* <--- commented out
import java.awt.Frame; <--- compiler sees this next time
import java.awt.Panel; <--- compiler sees this next time
//*/
import java.util.Vector;
based on the information in .class file.
(@@ is just an arbitrary pattern to indicate tool modified
source. it could be any other token)
(Notice only wild card import was transformed.)
Further if the user adds some code which requires
the java.awt.Dialog to be imported they could just delete
the first slashe like this -
/*@@*/ import java.awt.*; /* <--- compiler sees this next time
<--- now inside comment
import java.awt.Frame; <--- now inside comment
import java.awt.Panel; <--- now inside comment
//*/ <--- now inside comment
import java.util.Vector;
and the cycle starts again. In an IDE like environment
the compilation error clicking could be hooked up
to do the fix interactively.
Such an automated tool could forever put the wild card
vs specific import controversy to rest.
I have developed some code which dumps the imports using
slightly modified version of Chuck McManis's dumClass
utilities.
http://www.mcmanis.com/~cmcmanis/java/dump/index.html
However BCEL http://sourceforge.net/projects/bcel/
or IBM's Byte Code Toolkit could be used instead.
HTH,
sandip
Sandip V. Chitale 150, Almaden Blvd
work: (408) 535 1791 ext: 791 San Jose, CA, USA
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