If I have *.JAR files in the same directory that I am compiling my java code
do I have to include a classpath.

will the JAVA compiler go to the *JAR files in the current directory to find
the org.apache and orl.xml.sax as noted in the
code below?

The reason I ask the question, I put some *.JAR files in my class path that
really messed something up because
I could no longer run my java programs.  My java programs would compile, but
they would not run.  It was if
the computer had trouble locating the *.class file.  I ended up having to
reinstall the JAVA distribution then everything was ok again.
Yes it was just really strange.

So, I thought I would just forget about the class path and put the *JAR
files in the path I am compiling.  But I'm not sure if this is correct.

Please help.  Thanks

package sax;

import org.apache.*;
import org.xml.sax.*;

public class ParseDoc {

  public static void main( String[] args) throws Exception {
       XMLReader reader = new SAXParser();
reader.setContentHandler( new Handler() );
reader.parse("mydata.xml");
}

}

class Handler implements ContentHandler {

public void setDocumentLocator( Locator locator) {}
public void startDocument()
{

System.out.print("Start");

}
public void endDocument() {}
public void startElement(String namespace, String name, String qName,
Attributes atts){}
public void endElement(String namespace, String name, String qName) {}
public void characters( char[] ch, int start, int length) {}
public void processingInstruction( String target, String data){}
public void startPrefixMapping(String prefix, String uri ){}
public void endPrefixMapping( String prefix) {}
public void ignorableWhitespace( char[] ch, int start, int length ) {}
public void skippedEntity(String name ) {}

}