I have to update an applet which contains only 2 classes. The problem is that I can't compile either one. The first class requires the second class and the second class requires the first class. It looks something like:

public class first{
second objSecond
}

public class second{
first objFirst
}

I don't know how the person originally wrote it this way in the first place. Does anyone know of any works arounds without rewriting a bunch of the code? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. By the way, the language is Java.

I don't understand why this is a problem. You shouldn't need to do anything special to handle it.

The problem is the first class won't compile because it is trying to use the second class which doesn't exist yet because it hasn't been compiled. When I try to compile the second class, it won't compile either because it needs the first class which also doesn't exist yet because it hasn't been compiled.

I don't think that is your problem. The latest javac handles the situation you describe perfectly. Perhaps your classpath environment variable is misconfigured and gives old versions of these classes priority.

I'm not particularly familiar with Java, but could some prototype-like device not overcome this?

gian, not even that. It's all handled automatically. boxcar's problem definitely is with something else.

Maybe if you put the two classes inside another class?

public class bigclass{

public class first{
second objSecond
}

public class second{
first objFirst
}
}

I'm not too sure if that would work, it's the best thing I can think of.

That would work fine under every version of java I've run.

And for the sake of information, there's no such thing as prototypes in java.

Good to know!
Maybe I should start on the Java tutorial...

haha, I agree. I say it should all be defined at once anyway!

Prototyping would defeat the entire purpose of Java. And, as everyone has already said, boxcar's code should work just fine, maybe you have a really old version of java?