Thanks! That clears things up. To recapitulate:
1) Compile from the directory that contains the sub-directory corresponding to the first element of the package name. For example, if the directory structure is like this:
/dev/java/src/com/kilo/xtract
and
/dev/java/bin/com/kilo/xtract
and the package statement reads "package com.kilo.xtract;"
you should compile from /dev/java/src.
2) If the .class files are in the directories under /dev/java/bin and you are compiling from /dev/java/src, then the classpath should contain the
string "../bin". That is to say, "go up one directory level and then down the directory tree to "bin".
3) The compiler will read the package statement from the .java file and starting at /dev/java/bin, it will navigate down through the directory tree to find the necessary .class file(s) by appending to "../bin" each directory name listed in the package statement in order from left to right so that the effective classpath in this example will be "../bin/com/kilo/xtract".
[ April 26, 2006: Message edited by: Charles Knell ]