Retrotranslator

Infobox_Software
name = Retrotranslator


caption =
developer =
latest_release_version = 1.2.6
latest_release_date = February 29, 2008
latest preview version =
latest preview date =
operating_system = Cross-platform
platform = Java Virtual Machine
programming_language = Java
genre =
license = BSD-like License
website = http://retrotranslator.sourceforge.net/

Retrotranslator is a program written in Java that "converts" Java classes (bytecode).The "source" classes may use Java 1.5 and Java 1.6 features, whereas the "target" will be compatible with Java 1.4 and older environments.

Retrotranslator supports all Java 5 language features and part of the Java 5 API on both J2SE 1.4 and J2SE 1.3. On older Java environments only the Java 5 features that don't depend on the new API are supported. Retrotranslator is based on the ASM bytecode manipulation framework and the backport of the Java 5.0 concurrency utilities (see http://backport-jsr166.sourceforge.net/ )

The Stripes Framework developers suggest to use Retrotranslator in order to use Stripes (which extensively use Java 1.5 features) on a Java 1.4 environment [http://www.stripesframework.org/display/stripes/Java+1.4+and+Stripes]

Alternative tools

* Retroweaver
* Declawer
* JBossRetro

Links

comparison of backporting tools