diff --git a/build.xml b/build.xml
index 54fe3efb7..a1d6a838b 100644
--- a/build.xml
+++ b/build.xml
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@
   <property name="dist.jar"       value="${app.name}.jar"/>
   <property name="javadoc.home"   value="${deploy.dir}/docs"/>
   <property name="build.compiler" value="jikes"/>
+  <property name="build.optimize" value="off"/>
   <property name="java.libraries" value="/usr/share/java"/>
 
   <!-- prepares the application directories -->
@@ -32,7 +33,7 @@
   <!-- build the java class files -->
   <target name="compile" depends="prepare">
     <javac srcdir="src/java" destdir="${deploy.dir}/classes"
-           debug="on" optimize="on" deprecation="off">
+           debug="on" optimize="{$build.optimize}" deprecation="off">
       <classpath>
         <fileset dir="${java.libraries}" includes="**/*.jar"/>
         <fileset dir="lib" includes="**/*.jar"/>