How could Reflection not lead to code smells?

Question

I come from low level languages - C++ is the highest level I program in.

Recently I came across Reflection, and I just cannot fathom how it could be used without cod

Answer 1

I think that reflection is one of these mechanisms that are powerful but can be easily abused. You're given the tools to become a "power user" for very specific purposes, but it is not meant to replace proper object oriented design (just as object oriented design is not a solution for everything) or to be used lightly.

Because of the way Java is structured, you are already paying the price of representing your class hierarchy in memory at runtime (compare to C++ where you don't pay any costs unless you use things like virtual methods). There is therefore no cost rationale for blocking it fully.

Reflection is useful for things like serialization - things like Hibernate or digester can use it to determine how to best store objects automatically. Similarly, the JavaBeans model is based on names of methods (a questionable decision, I admit), but you need to be able to inspect what properties are available to build things like visual editors. In more recent versions of Java, reflections is what makes annotations useful - you can write tools and do metaprogramming using these entities that exist in the source code but can be accessible at runtime.

It is possible to go through an entire career as a Java programmer and never have to use reflection because the problems that you deal with don't require it. On the other hand, for certain problems, it is quite necessary.