What do you mean by the term 'container'?

[Sathyaish]

What is a container?

I often visit the term 'lightweight container' and 'heavyweight
container' and I 'infer' the meaning from the context. In some
contexts such as EJB literature, it means a specific container class
implementing a container interface whose job is to contain the bean
(server/service).

In another context, like in the WebWork In Action book, it is loosely
meant to refer to servlets and Web servers that contain mechanisms for
handling HTTP methods.

In yet another context, during a discussion with a colleague, he used
the term to mean the general connotation of the word container. He
said, "like a company contains many employees, therefore a company
object is a container for employee(s)".

I am a Java beginner, so please be gentle on me. I have not completely
read a single book on Java except one old book on Applets. I am in the
process of reading the Core Java 2 volumes, but have not been able to
devote much time.

 

[Patricia Shanahan]

What is a container?

I don't think there is any one answer. It is just something that
contains other things. The nature of the container and the nature of the
things it contains both depend on the context.

Some concepts show up far more often than the number of different words
for them in even the English language, so we need to have some words
that are context-dependent.

Patricia

 

[Mike Schilling]

What is a container?

I often visit the term 'lightweight container' and 'heavyweight
container' and I 'infer' the meaning from the context. In some
contexts such as EJB literature, it means a specific container class
implementing a container interface whose job is to contain the bean
(server/service).

In the J2EE sense, it's used to mean a program that's like a miniature OS,
whose job it is to manage and schedule other programs (beans, servlets,
etc.). This is a loose enough definition that it can be stretched to fit
many otherwise dissimilar situations.