Learning experience: Why does Java support reflection?

Source: Internet
Author: User
Tags reflection
Why does Java support Reflection? The answer is that the Java runtime still has type information. It contains all the fields, methods, protection levels, and other classes that the class depends on. In Java, Class information is stored as objects. These objects are meta objects and their types are Class. With this information, it is easy to dynamically create an object or call some methods. In C ++, through RTTI (runtime type recognition), we can also know some information about the class, but why C ++ does not have Reflection, the reason is that the type information is incomplete. The RTTI name tells us that the type information of C ++ is used for type recognition, so it does not need any additional information. C ++ does not want to do this, but does not want to add additional burden to users. C ++ has abandoned the object. Bjarne Stroustrup, the father of C ++, is discussed in depth in section 14.2.8 of his C ++ language design and evolution.
The object is the material basis of Java Reflection. What is its spiritual basis? Why does Java support Reflection? After the above discussion, we further discuss this question. Why does Java provide metadata?
To discuss this issue, we need to pull back to a decade ago, when Java just came to the stage of formal history. Java was actually born several years ago. It was also called Oak at that time, and the environmental limitations made this epoch masterpiece shelved when it was released. When Netscape kicked off for the Internet, Java was able to get started with Phoenix

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