diff --git a/java/external/src/javax/xml/transform/stream/StreamResult.java b/java/external/src/javax/xml/transform/stream/StreamResult.java
index b99dc67..4071aad 100644
--- a/java/external/src/javax/xml/transform/stream/StreamResult.java
+++ b/java/external/src/javax/xml/transform/stream/StreamResult.java
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@
 
 package javax.xml.transform.stream;
 
+import java.lang.reflect.Method;
 import javax.xml.transform.Result;
 
 import java.io.File;
@@ -161,9 +162,15 @@ public class StreamResult implements Result {
     public void setSystemId(File f) {
     	
     	try {
-    		// assume >= 1.4
-    		this.systemId = f.toURI().toString();
-    	} catch (java.lang.NoSuchMethodError nme) {
+    		// use reflection to call f.toURI().toString().
+    		// Avoid compile time dependency on J2SE 1.4.
+    		Method toURIMethod = f.getClass().getMethod("toURI", null);
+    		Object uri = toURIMethod.invoke(f, null);
+    		Method toStringMethod = uri.getClass().getMethod("toString", null);
+    		this.systemId = (String)toStringMethod.invoke(uri, null);
+    	} 
+    	catch (Exception exception)
+	{
     		// running on J2SE 1.3?
     		try {
         		this.systemId = f.toURL().toString();
@@ -174,12 +181,6 @@ public class StreamResult implements Result {
     					+ malformedURLException.toString()
     			);
     		}
-        } catch (Exception exception) {
-    		throw new RuntimeException(
-    				"javax.xml.transform.stream.StreamResult#setSystemId(File f):"
-    				+ " unexpected Exception: " + exception.toString()
-			);
-    		
         }
     }