Inner Classes Specification

Note: This Inner Classes Specification is available for download as part of the JDK1.1 End Of Life (EOL) section of the Sun website. It has been included here because most of the specification is still relevant to the current Java classfile definition. However, the information has not been transferred into the latest Java Virtual Machine Specification or made available elsewhere in Sun's online Java resources.

What are top-level classes and inner classes?

Example: A simple adapter class

Example: A local class

Anonymous classes

How do inner classes work?

References to local variables

Why does Java need inner classes?

Why anonymous classes?

What about dynamic typing and computed selectors ("perform")?

How do inner classes affect the idea of this in Java code?

Enclosing classes and instantiation

Do inner classes affect the correct synchronization of Java code?

Can a nested class be declared final, private, protected, or static?

Members that can be marked static

How do inner classes affect the organization of the Java Virtual Machine?

Class name transformations

Names of generated variables and methods

Security implications

How does the Java Language Specification change for inner classes?

Other changes in the Java 1.1 language

Instance initializers

Anonymous array expressions

Class literals

Blank finals and final local variables

What are the new binary compatibility requirements for Java 1.1 classes?

Bytecode names of classes and interfaces

The class attribute InnerClasses

The member attribute Synthetic

Further Example: Sample AWT code

Further Example: An API with coordinated inner classes

Further Example: Multi-threaded task partitioning.