Xtend

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Xtend is a statically-typed programming language which translates to comprehensible Java source code. Syntactically and semantically Xtend has its roots in the Java programming language but improves on many aspects:

Extension methods - enhance closed types with new functionality
Lambda Expressions - concise syntax for anonymous function literals
ActiveAnnotations - annotation processing on steroids
Operator overloading - make your libraries even more expressive
Powerful switch expressions - type based switching with implicit casts
Multiple dispatch - a.k.a. polymorphic method invocation
Template expressions - with intelligent white space handling
No statements - everything is an expression
Properties - shorthands for accessing and defining getters and setter
Type inference - you rarely need to write down type signatures anymore
Full support for Java generics - including all conformance and conversion rules
Translates to Java not bytecode - understand what is going on and use your code for platforms such as Android or GWT

Unlike other JVM languages Xtend has zero interoperability issues with Java: Everything you write interacts with Java exactly as expected. At the same time Xtend is much more concise, readable and expressive. Xtend’s small library is just a thin layer that provides useful utilities and extensions on top of the Java Development Kit (JDK).

Of course, you can call Xtend methods from Java, too, in a completely transparent way. Furthermore, Xtend provides a modern Eclipse-based IDE closely integrated with the Eclipse Java Development Tools (JDT), including features like call-hierarchies, rename refactoring, debugging and many more.

Tags: language jvm

Last modified 16 December 2024

Xtend

A flexible and expressive dialect of Java, which compiles into readable Java 8 compatible source code.