Like many server applications, Tomcat installs a variety of class loaders (that is, classes that implement java.lang.ClassLoader) to allow different portions of the container, and the web ...

The Java class loader. Everything in Java is a class, and all Java applications are built from classes. An application could consist of one class or thousands.

Java 5 added the Java Instrumentation mechanism, which allows you to provide “Java agents” that can inspect and modify the byte code of the classes as they are loaded.

The packaging mechanisms defined in Chapter 8 of the J2EE 1.3 specification provide a framework for pulling together all the pieces of a J2EE application. However, application server vendors are free ...