posted 17 years ago
Aum explained it well.
Quote from Sierra & Bates:
"You'll sometimes hear static nested classes referred to as static inner classes, but they really aren't inner classes at all, by the standard definition of an inner class."
From a scoping-perspective, static nested classes are innner, in the sense that they are defined inside the enclosing class. Hence they are called nested classes.
From a relationship-perspective, static nested classes are outer, as they can not access the instance members of the enclosing class. The complicated name "top-level nested class" attempts to convey the paradoxical nature of this class type.
Good job, Aum!!