| Summary: | When you are creating tools for a programming language that are written in that programming language, sometimes you have to look "under the covers." The process of inspecting components of the program for meta-information -- that is, information about the component, as opposed to information about what the component is used for -- is called introspection. The 1.1 version of the Java core classes provides a new API called the Reflection API. This provides an introspection facility for Java classes. This month's column will take a look at what the Reflection API does and how you might apply it in your Java code. (3,420 words)
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