The idea of load-time transformation itself is not an especially new one: for example, many operating systems and programming environments support dynamic linking, which binds references to library routines at load time. However, these transformations do not alter semantics of the programs themselves (although the semantics of the routines could vary from library to library), and users cannot specify the type or scope of the transformation.
The power of load-time transformation in Java has been recognized by other groups recently. An implementation of parameterized types (i.e. templates) in Java [AFM97] uses the loader to instantiate an appropriate new class. Binary Component Adaptation [KH97] uses load-time transformation to ensure compatibility between third-party components, by performing such symbolic manipulations as renaming methods, marking classes as implementing common interfaces, and restructuring class hierarchies and relationships.
Two other research projects deal with late binding of functionality to
objects and classes. ``Subject-Oriented Programming'' [OHBS94] is
a model of object-oriented programming that allows late composition of
components from multiple, independently-developed groups of classes.
SOP allows new fields and methods to be added, possibly overriding old
definitions. ``Aspect-Oriented Programming'' [KLM 
97] emphasizes
that different aspects of a class (such as the base algorithm,
desired precision, data structure, etc.) should be written seperately,
to be woven together later into a single class; this simplifies the
programming model for modules that contain different aspects.