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From: markspace <markspace@nospam.nospam>
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Subject: Re: Design Patterns
Date: Tue, 05 Feb 2013 14:30:58 -0800
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On 2/5/2013 2:06 PM, Stefan Ram wrote:
> markspace <markspace@nospam.nospam> writes:
>> A real static class is a nested class
>
>> that has
>
>    whose instances have
>
>> no (implied) reference to
>
>> its enclosing instance.
>
>    their enclosing instances.
>
>    BTW: A static class has a reference to its enclosing class.


"Class object."  It's splitting hairs a bit, but that is how the JLS 
refers to them.

Example:

"In the Java virtual machine, every object belongs to some particular 
class: the class that was mentioned in the creation expression that 
produced the object (§15.9), or the class whose Class object was used to 
invoke a reflective method to produce the object..."

<http://docs.oracle.com/javase/specs/jls/se7/html/jls-4.html#jls-4.12.6>


>
> public class Main
> { static class C {}
>    public static void main( final java.lang.String args[] )
>    { java.lang.System.out.println( C.class.getEnclosingClass() ); }}
>

C.class is a class object.  "Class" as I use it above (usually with a 
lower case 'c') is more the concept of a class, rather than its Java 
implementation of the class.  (Rather the same way that the JLS uses 
'class' to refer to the general concept of a class in OOD, for example 
that section of the JLS I quoted above.)

That said, you're not really wrong to point out it's really the 
instances that have references to their enclosing class.