| An annotation processing tool framework will {@linkplain
Processor#init provide an annotation processor with an object
implementing this interface} so the processor can use facilities
provided by the framework to write new files, report error
messages, and find other utilities.
Third parties may wish to provide value-add wrappers around the
facility objects from this interface, for example a {@code Filer}
extension that allows multiple processors to coordinate writing out
a single source file. To enable this, for processors running in a
context where their side effects via the API could be visible to
each other, the tool infrastructure must provide corresponding
facility objects that are {@code .equals}, {@code Filer}s that are
{@code .equals}, and so on. In addition, the tool invocation must
be able to be configured such that from the perspective of the
running annotation processors, at least the chosen subset of helper
classes are viewed as being loaded by the same class loader.
(Since the facility objects manage shared state, the implementation
of a wrapper class must know whether or not the same base facility
object has been wrapped before.) |
