Java Reference
In-Depth Information
Exercise 16.11
: Expand on
Game
and
Player
to implement a simple
game, such as tic-tac-toe. Score some
Player
implementations over sev-
eral runs each.
16.13.2. Preparing a Class for Use
The class loader assists in only the first stage of making a class avail-
able. There are three steps in all:
1.
Loading
Getting the bytecodes that implement the class and cre-
ating a
Class
object.
2.
Linking
Verifying that the class's bytecodes conform to the lan-
guage rules, preparing the virtual machine by allocating space for
static fields, and (optionally) resolving all references in the class
by, if necessary, loading the classes referred to.
3.
Initialization
Initializing the superclass (if necessary, including
loading and linking it), then executing all the static initializers and
static initialization blocks of the class.
The
Class
object returned by
defineClass
only represents a loaded classit
has not yet been linked. You can explicitly link by invoking the (mis-
named)
resolveClass
method:
protected final void
resolveClass(Class<?> c)
Links the specified class if it has not already been linked.
The
loadClass
method we described does not resolve the class that is
loaded. A protected, overloaded form of
loadClass
takes an additional
boolean
flag indicating whether or not to resolve the class before return-
ing. The virtual machine will ensure that a class is resolved (linked) be-
fore it is initialized.
A class must be initialized immediately before the first occurrence of: an
instance of the class being created; a static method of the class being
