The Java Language Specification, Third Edition

NAMES Meaning of Type Names 6.5.5
accessible (§6.6), or Id names more than one member type within Q, then a compile-time
error occurs.
The example:
package wnj.test;
class Test {
public static void main(String[] args) {
java.util.Date date =
new java.util.Date(System.currentTimeMillis());
System.out.println(date.toLocaleString());
}
}
produced the following output the first time it was run:
Sun Jan 21 22:56:29 1996
In this example the name java.util.Date must denote a type, so we first use the
procedure recursively to determine if java.util is an accessible type or a package,
which it is, and then look to see if the type Date is accessible in this package.
DISCUSSION
Type names are distinct from type declaration specifiers (§4.3). A type name is always
qualified by meas of another type name. In some cases, it is necessary to access an inner
class that is a member of a parameterized type:
class GenericOuter {
public class Inner {
T getT() { return null;}
S getS() { return null;}
}
};
GenericOuter.Inner x1 = null;
Integer i = x1.getT();
Double d = x1.getS();
If we accessed Inner by qualifying it with a type name, as in:
GenericOuter.Inner x2 = null;
we would force its use as a raw type, losing type information.
DRAFT
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