Help! Don't know why this source won't compile!

Question

Hey guys, i'm new to the java scene. I just picked up a book about a week ago ("Sam's Teach Yourself Java 2") I'm on the 6th lesson of the book, learning about "Packages" (ie. java.awt).
The book contains compilable source code on a disk that comes with the book.
I'm stumped with the example i'm currently working on, and i've tried everything in my limited knowledge of java to solve the problem, but I can't. The example involves 2 seperate java text files.
package org.cadenhead.ecommerce;
import java.util.*;
public class Item implements Comparable {
    private String id;
    private String name;
    private double retail;
    private int quantity;
    private double price;
    Item(String idIn, String nameIn, String retailIn, String quanIn) {
        id = idIn;
        name = nameIn;
        retail = Double.parseDouble(retailIn);
        quantity = Integer.parseInt(quanIn);
        if (quantity > 400)
            price = retail * .5D;
        else if (quantity > 200)
            price = retail * .6D;
        else
            price = retail * .7D;
        price = Math.floor( price * 100 + .5 ) / 100;
    public int compareTo(Object obj) {
        Item temp = (Item)obj;
        if (this.price < temp.price)
            return 1;
        else if (this.price > temp.price)
            return -1;
        return 0;
    public String getId() {
        return id;
    public String getName() {
        return name;
    public double getRetail() {
        return retail;
    public int getQuantity() {
        return quantity;
    public double getPrice() {
        return price;
and this one..
package org.cadenhead.ecommerce;
import java.util.*;
public class Storefront {
    private LinkedList catalog = new LinkedList();
    public void addItem(String id, String name, String price,
        String quant) {
        Item it = new Item(id, name, price, quant);
        catalog.add(it);
    public Item getItem(int i) {
        return (Item)catalog.get(i);
    public int getSize() {
        return catalog.size();
    public void sort() {
        Collections.sort(catalog);
Now the example has to do with creating a package "org.cadenhead.ecommerce"
So I placed both source files in a folder in what I believe is my classpath. (C:\program files\java\jdk1.5.0_05\ lib\org\cadenhead\ecommerce)
The Item class compiles, but the Storefront won't. Every class i've made this far has had no problems compiling, and I doubt that there is an error in the code since it is straight from the book. When I try to compile, i get 4 errors, all of which look similar to this:
Storefront.java:15: cannot find symbol
symbol : class Item
location : class.org.cadenhead.ecommerce.Storefront
public Item getItem(int i) {
^
Can anyone help me out and figure out what's wrong here? I'm really confused about why it doesn't seem to be able to find the Item class. I'm kind of stuck in the book since I can't figure this out and I wanted to make sure everything was configured right. I set the classpath in the "Enviroment Variables" folder (windows XP) to .;C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.5.0_05\lib\tools.jar
but to no avail...
Thanks to anyone who reads my thread and helps me!!!

Answer 1

You don't say what your folder structure is. The statement
package org.cadenhead.ecommerceimplies that your classpath contains a folder
org/cadenhead/ecommerceand that the class files reside in the ecommerce folder.
"org" is relative, it is contained in one of the classpath folders.
I created a project in Eclipse 3.1 name org.cadenhead. Created a package ecommerce. I cut and pasted your code into two java files in the ecommerce package. The only change I made was to change
package org.cadenhead.ecommerceto
package ecommerceCode compiles without error. So I think either your classpath does not contain org.cadenhead.ecommerce or the Item class is not in org.cadenhead.ecommerce.
Good luck