Inner classes
classes defined within classes
- as of JDK v1.1
- used for adapters, helper and interface objects
- refer to Java Language Spec. inner classes addendum
- useful when class only needed temporarily, or
- only within scope of the class
- semantics get tricky, so only use for simple things
- rule of thumb: should be no longer than a page
- otherwise use regular classes (in fact that's how it's impl.)
- note that virtual machine was not changed!