I don't know if you know C or C++, but in those languages you have a precompiler. You can use
#define in a source file to define for example constants etc., like this:
Some C or C++ compilers allow you to define constants on the command line, when you invoke the compiler. Like this:
gcc -DMAGIC_NUMBER=23 example.c -o example
I guess the "-D" in Java has a similar function (although Java doesn't have a preprocessor and you're not defining compile-time constants with it).
If you're still not satisfied with the answer, you can indeed try
asking the big boss...