Bob,
Sorry for the late reply. As per Servlet 2.2 API spec all .class files go into ROOT/Web-Inf/classes directory and the servlet container's supposed to set the ROOT/Web-inf/classes dir in JVM's classpath.
I tried putting an applet's .class file in above said classes dir and kept the .html file in /ROOT dir and called from browser. But the applet was not loaded.
Then I tried to put the .html file and applet's .class file in same /ROOT dir and tried to call this .html file from browser. Now the applet is loaded.
Another try which worked was, I kept the applet's .class file from an unrelated dir which could be separate from web server's deployment dir structure itself. Like it could be from c:\bob\myApplet.class and put c:\bob in classpath by editing the autoexec.bat file.
Now also when I called the .html file from browser, the applet in c:\bob dir was loaded.
So , yet to figure out why it was not loaded when I kept the applet's class file in /ROOT/Web-inf/classes dir.
Others can add to this.
regds
maha anna