Groovy - AST Transformation

Groovy is a powerful language that gives the opportunity to its users to plugin into the compilation process to create what we call AST transformations, ie. the ability to customize the Abstract Syntax Tree representing your programs before the compiler walks this tree to generate Java bytecode.

When writing a lot of Groovy code, especially when you write it as part of a wider team it will be very beneficial to take some time to look into the inner workings of AST. As AST transformation can be build yourself to extend how Groovy is working it can help in ensuring that your code will be much more similar between different developers than it would be without using AST transformation.

When you are new to Groovy AST transformation the below talk can be a good starting point.