Question

I am developing a library. I want some functionality to be additionally available in case a certain other library is in the classpath. My understanding is:

• there would be a buildtime dependency, since I import from that lib and use it in places
• runtime dependency is there only if the code path reaches the point where I am using something from that library

Am I correct?

Answer 1

Am I correct?

Yes.

runtime dependency only arises if the code path reaches …

I would it name execution path. At any time the code in execution will reach some

a.A a = new a.A();

And if class a.A is not on your classpath it will throw a Runntime Exception. That mean you have to run and reach this point to get an error. If your program don’t reach this point it never fails.