Re: Doubts...

| <getsanjay.sharma@gmail.com> wrote in message
| news:1176656153.126314.45280@o5g2000hsb.googlegroups.com...
| Hello to all programmers out there.
|
| I have some concepts which were very fuzzy for me so I just wanted
| them to get clarified.
|
| ? What is the difference between the import statement and the
| Class.forName() when all they do is load a class?

Import informs the compiler of the full package names of classes so that you
don't have to type the whole java.lang.String every time you want a String.
It has no effect at runtime because the generated code includes the full
names. Class.forName() takes only the full class name and makes it
available via reflection. It's used specifically when your program cannot
know the name of the class at compile time and so it is meaningful only at
runtime.

| ? What is the difference between the run() and start() method of a
| thread? Why do we need to call start() when we can directly call run()
| esp when start() is something like:

The run method of a thread contains the thread's application functionality.
Naturally, it's empty--your application fills in the run portion either by
subclassing Thread (not recommended) or by supplying a Runnable (preferred).
The run method contents is what will be executed in a separate thread. The
start method activates that functionality in a separate stream of execution.
It's what causes the seemingly parallel execution to occur.

|
| protected void start()
| {
| if(target != null)
| target.run();
| }

You have to remember that the above code is executing in a separate stream
of execution. If you call run directly, it will execute sequentially with
the caller. Only start () will activate the separate thread. Consider:

Runnable r = new Runnable () {
  public void run () {
    System.out.println ("Running.");
}};

Thread t = new Thread (r);

PROGRAM #1
t.run ()
System.out.println ("Done.");

PROGRAM #2
t.start ()
System.out.println ("Done.");

--------
The first program always prints Running and then Done--there is no
parallelism.
The second program can print the two strings either order because they're
happening in separate, parallel threads of execution. Start fires off the
thread and its "run" will occur elsewhere a short time later. Maybe before
the "Done" occurs, maybe after. It may be difficult to demonstrate this
effect because of OS timing peculiarities--most books on threading have a
much better example that shows two interfering threads. "Concurrent
Programming in Java" by Doug Lea is a worthwhile read.

Cheers,