Avoid use of system properties?

[Jeremy Boynes <jb...@gluecode.com>]

One issue I am running into with embedding Derby is the use of system 
properties to store the configuration. I would like to be able to set 
these values at runtime (either dynamically or potentially by rebooting 
the derby system within the same VM). Ideally I would like to have these 
as attributes that can be managed using JMX.

How widespread in the code is access to these properties; do classes 
tend to load them as needed or is there a central service that they go 
to for them? If the latter, is practical to replace it with some form of 
JavaBean that can be exposed to management?

Thanks
--
Jeremy