question: public static Class < ? > loadClass ( String codebase , String name , ClassLoader defaultLoader ) throws MalformedURLException , ClassNotFoundException { if ( loaderLog . isLoggable ( Log . BRIEF ) ) { loaderLog . log ( Log . BRIEF , "name = \"" + name + "\", " + "codebase = \"" + ( codebase != null ? codebase : "" ) + "\"" + ( defaultLoader != null ? ", defaultLoader = " + defaultLoader : "" ) ) ; } URL [ ] urls ; if ( codebase != null ) { urls = pathToURLs ( codebase ) ; } else { urls = getDefaultCodebaseURLs ( ) ; } if ( defaultLoader != null ) { try { Class < ? > c = loadClassForName ( name , false , defaultLoader ) ; if ( loaderLog . isLoggable ( Log . VERBOSE ) ) { loaderLog . log ( Log . VERBOSE , "class \"" + name + "\" found via defaultLoader, " + "defined by " + c . getClassLoader ( ) ) ; } return c ; } catch ( ClassNotFoundException e ) { } } return loadClass ( urls , name ) ; }
target:  Load a class from a network location (one or more URLs), but first try to resolve the named class through the given "default loader".