Help: class files manipulation and versions
Hello to everyone. I am working on an academic implementation of the Java Virtual Machine, which is somehow similar in purpose to Java Pathfinder. I rely on an external library for reading and manipulating classfiles, which experiences some problems with parsing .class files produced by javac, so I'm thinking about dismissing it. To support my decision I need answer to some questions:
1- How many versions of the class file format have been released until now? Are their differences documented, and where is such documentation? The VM specification is not very clear on these points.
2- As possible candidates for replacement I know about Javassist, BCEL, SERP and ASP. Does someone has some comments about them (stability, maturity, support...) to ease my evaluation? I have very basic needs, mainly parsing classfiles, but they may grow up to building a control flow graph of the methods bytecode to support backwards execution. Also suggestions of different frameworks for me to evaluate are welcome.
Thanks in advance to everyone who will help me with the above questions.
