How to Reduce External Dependencies for your Java Libraries

For people who write or contribute to java open source products, external dependencies are a blessing and a curse. They are a blessing in that these external dependencies provide needed functionality that shortens development. I couldn't imagine writing code without the benefit of Apache Commons Lang, Commons Collections, Commons IO, Commons BeanUtils, and many more. They shorten development a tremendous amount, but for open source libraries, they also present problems.
The first problem is th...