Generate compiler warning with user defined annotation

Question

Is it possible for make the compiler generate a warning when it encounters a user defined annotaion? Something similar to the @Deprecated annotation?

Thanks

Answer 1

Based on your original question and comments, I assume you're trying to do the following:

• Mark code as incomplete (with a compiler warning) so other developers do not use it yet.
• Identify the incomplete code in your IDE at a later point in time.

I don't believe you can mark the code with a compiler warning. The @Deprecated tag is baked into the compiler. A more common way of indicating a method is incomplete is by throwing an exception:

throw new UnsupportedOperationException("Not implemented yet");

The effect isn't realized until runtime, but the other developers should be unit testing their code.

As for identifying the incomplete code I would still refer back to my original comment. Use the TODO comment tag and Eclipse will build a task list for you. If your list is cluttered with auto-generated code that hasn't been cleaned up, you can use FIXME, XXX, or define your own. You should then be able to filter your list.

Answer 2

I've asked the Lombok people to look at providing this functionality https://github.com/peichhorn/lombok-pg/issues/114 and it is now implemented ;-) https://github.com/peichhorn/lombok-pg/wiki/%40Warning

Answer 3

It's possible via annotation processors api

Here is Lightweight Javac Warning Annotation library https://github.com/pushtorefresh/javac-warning-annotation

Usage:

// some code...

@Warning("This method should be refactored")
public void someCodeWhichYouNeedAtTheMomentButYouWantToRefactorItLater() {
    // bad stuff going on here...
}