001    /*
002     * Copyright (C) 2010 The Guava Authors
003     *
004     * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
005     * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
006     * You may obtain a copy of the License at
007     *
008     * http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
009     *
010     * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
011     * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
012     * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
013     * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
014     * limitations under the License.
015     */
016    
017    package com.google.common.annotations;
018    
019    import java.lang.annotation.Documented;
020    import java.lang.annotation.ElementType;
021    import java.lang.annotation.Retention;
022    import java.lang.annotation.RetentionPolicy;
023    import java.lang.annotation.Target;
024    
025    /**
026     * Signifies that a public API (public class, method or field) is subject to
027     * incompatible changes, or even removal, in a future release. An API bearing
028     * this annotation is exempt from any compatibility guarantees made by its
029     * containing library. Note that the presence of this annotation implies nothing
030     * about the quality or performance of the API in question, only the fact that
031     * it is not "API-frozen."
032     *
033     * <p>It is generally safe for <i>applications</i> to depend on beta APIs, at
034     * the cost of some extra work during upgrades. However it is generally
035     * inadvisable for <i>libraries</i> (which get included on users' CLASSPATHs,
036     * outside the library developers' control) to do so.
037     *
038     *
039     * @author Kevin Bourrillion
040     */
041    @Retention(RetentionPolicy.CLASS)
042    @Target({
043        ElementType.ANNOTATION_TYPE,
044        ElementType.CONSTRUCTOR,
045        ElementType.FIELD,
046        ElementType.METHOD,
047        ElementType.TYPE})
048    @Documented
049    @GwtCompatible
050    public @interface Beta {}