If you are fortunate enough to be using JDK 7, the newly available Objects class is the obvious (at least to me) choice for implementing the “common” Java object ...

I’ve used Java Architecture for XML Binding (JAXB) successfully for a wide set of problems and generally really like it. However, it is not without its downsides ...

While languages like Ruby provide the pertinent information you need, why can't Java provide a decent, useable, toString() method right out of the box?