guava/src/com/google/common/annotations/Beta.java

/*
 * Copyright (C) 2010 The Guava Authors
 *
 * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
 * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
 * You may obtain a copy of the License at
 *
 * http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
 *
 * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
 * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
 * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
 * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
 * limitations under the License.
 */

package com.google.common.annotations;

import java.lang.annotation.Documented;
import java.lang.annotation.ElementType;
import java.lang.annotation.Retention;
import java.lang.annotation.RetentionPolicy;
import java.lang.annotation.Target;

/**
 * Signifies that a public API (public class, method or field) is subject to
 * incompatible changes, or even removal, in a future release. An API bearing
 * this annotation is exempt from any compatibility guarantees made by its
 * containing library. Note that the presence of this annotation implies nothing
 * about the quality or performance of the API in question, only the fact that
 * it is not "API-frozen."
 *
 * <p>It is generally safe for <i>applications</i> to depend on beta APIs, at
 * the cost of some extra work during upgrades. However it is generally
 * inadvisable for <i>libraries</i> (which get included on users' CLASSPATHs,
 * outside the library developers' control) to do so.
 *
 *
 * @author Kevin Bourrillion
 */
@Retention(RetentionPolicy.CLASS)
@Target({
    ElementType.ANNOTATION_TYPE,
    ElementType.CONSTRUCTOR,
    ElementType.FIELD,
    ElementType.METHOD,
    ElementType.TYPE})
@Documented
@GwtCompatible
public @interface Beta {}