Chapter 7. Packages

 

Good things come in small packages.

 
 --Traditional proverb

Programs are organized as sets of packages. Each package has its own set of names for types, which helps to prevent name conflicts. A top level type is accessible (§6.6) outside the package that declares it only if the type is declared public.

The naming structure for packages is hierarchical (§7.1). The members of a package are class and interface types (§7.6), which are declared in compilation units of the package, and subpackages, which may contain compilation units and subpackages of their own.

A package can be stored in a file system (§7.2.1) or in a database (§7.2.2). Packages that are stored in a file system may have certain constraints on the organization of their ...

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