Lombok VS Error Prone

The above class maps the json data to a java object we can work with. We use Lombok to generate constructors, getters and setters for our code and the Jackson Project to handle serialization and deserialization of json to pojo . We know the response is an array of objects representing the coffee and so above data structure is fit for this.

Almost a decade ago, I started reducing my boilerplate (and saving time with Lombok. It made my life much easier, simple as that. Ever since I've been looking into finding the smoothest solutions for saving time rather than handling all of it myself.

Lombok is a widely used library that simplifies Java code. The @NonNull annotation helps enforce non-null parameters, generating appropriate null checks:

Project Lombok

I gotta agree with /u/rzwitserloot I don't see anything in the lombok repo that indicates they have their "own compiler". I see the "reaching into javac internals" but that's it.

i looked into that and found this: https://github.com/projectlombok/lombok/issues/2310

Funny enough; /u/rzwitserloot is the author of Lombok, one of the most widely used Java libraries in the world. So it's not really some kind of random-ass Redditor they're having a discussion with either.

This removes the need to add the 'Project Lombok' library (and going through a phase of installing it in your Eclipse IDE; old school devs know what I am talking about) and speeds up development time. Java 14 added a new feature of 'Records' which allows you to do the same, but it doesn't offer a 'copy' method to ease your object creation and also enforces the 'final' keyword for variables making them immutable.

I get the main criticisms of Java, i.e. its verbosity and the requirement for a lot of boilerplate code, and understand why some people switched to Kotlin. But by using libraries such as lombok you can get rid of most of it and suddenly the incentives for switching aren't that big anymore. And in the end it's all JVM bytecode anyways.

I usually use this... https://projectlombok.org/

error-prone is good for some extra static analysis.

A special kind of validation is enforcing that record fields are not null. (Un)fortunately, records do not have any special behavior regarding nullability. You can use tools like NullAway or Error Prone to prevent null in your code in general, or you can add checks to your records:

I am all in favour to more third side libraries adding functionalities, like Lombok, Manifold and error prone. As well as smaller projects like this shameless plug and what appears in this list

If only Google didn't suck when it came to Java9+ support... https://github.com/google/error-prone/issues/2649

I haven't used it. I use Google's ErrorProne + Lombok to prevent NPEs in java.

Take a look at NullAway, a plugin for Error Prone.

For some of this stuff, there are compiler extensions that allow extra type checking to be added e.g. Google Error-Prone: https://github.com/google/error-prone with stuff like: https://errorprone.info/bugpattern/ReturnMissingNullable.

Doesn't help you with third party libraries, but across an org applying that rule (and others!) typically ensures some consistency.

How to build a static analysis plugin. Google has a framework for Java with a good tutorial.