[computerdork]

Yeah, I get the idea, abstractions allow decoupling. But, think that it should be used in a thoughtful way - there is quote from the original Design Patterns book that said something like a careful considered use of Design Patterns should make the system easier to work with, or something like that (sorry, don't have it on hand).

We can go back and forth on this, so will just say, in my opinion, Spring autowiring overall doesn't provide enough benefit versus its downsides, which to me are: increased complexity and doesn't work well enough (it should be easier to debug autowiring problems for one).

You seem very knowledgeable about design, and, of course, you're entitled to your opinion, so seems like we'll probably just have to disagree on this:)