Development

Reinventing Java builds: Leveraging source and modules in Java

Rafael Winterhalter

Rafael Winterhalter

Rafael works as a software consultant in Oslo, Norway. He is a proponent of static typing and a JVM enthusiast with particular interest in code instrumentation, concurrency and functional programming. Rafael blogs about software development, regularly presents at conferences and was pronounced a JavaOne Rock Star.

When coding outside of his work place, he contributes to a wide range of open source projects and often works on Byte Buddy, a library for simple runtime code generation for the Java virtual machine. For his work, Rafael received a Duke's Choice award and was elected a Java Champion.

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This presentation introduces a proof-of-concept build tool for Java that explores a new way to lower the entry barrier to the language. Rather than relying on external installation or non-Java configuration, the tool can be embedded directly as source code and executed like any other Java file, leveraging modern language features. This approach makes it easy to adopt for both beginners and experts, simple to extend, and inherently more transparent. A second focus is security: by rethinking how external dependencies are introduced and managed, the tool aims to reduce hidden risks while keeping builds reproducible. In addition, it separates build logic from dependency declaration and seeks to leverage the Java module system to provide clearer, more maintainable project boundaries. Although still experimental, this work points toward a more lightweight and approachable model for building Java projects.