Be aware that these terms are not always used consistently, especially in older material. (Surprisingly, Eckel's
Thinking in Java is still not in agreement with the
Java Language Specification.)
According to the current JLS...
"A nested class is any class whose declaration occurs within the body of another class or interface." (
JLS 8)
"An inner class is a nested class that is not explicitly or implicitly declared static." (
JLS 8.1.3)
[ August 27, 2006: Message edited by: marc weber ]