title: What is the use of package level protection in java?
body: <p>I know how package level protection in java works. I <em>read</em> a lot of code (including lots of open source stuff) and no-one seem to be using it. The whole protection level seems slightly faulty to me (I'd have c#'s internal any day of the week). </p>
  
  <p>Are there any legit real-world use-cases that are in common use ?</p>
  
  <p>Edit: A little too late after asking this question I realized I'd forgotten to exclude the "standard" pattern of package protected implementation classes, possibly providing implementations of public interfaces. Everyone uses those, as has been noted several times in the replies. I still think there are a large number of nice replies to this question.</p>