Is static metaprogramming possible in Java?

Question

I am a fan of static metaprogramming in C++. I know Java now has generics. Does this mean that static metaprogramming (i.e., compile-time program execution) is possible in

Answer 1

No, this is not possible. Generics are not as powerful as templates. For instance, a template argument can be a user-defined type, a primitive type, or a value; but a generic template argument can only be Object or a subtype thereof.

Edit: This is an old answer; since 2011 we have Java 7, which has Annotations that can be used for such trickery.