16. A method as recited in claim 15 , wherein the SHA-1 digest of the first class file of the first class type is stored in a table configured to map the first class name of the first class type to a record including the SHA-1 digest of the first class file and a reference to the first loader independent part of the runtime representation of the first class type.
17. A method as recited in claim 16 , wherein the first loader independent part of the runtime representation of the first class type includes a pointer to the loader independent part of the runtime representation of the super class type of the first class type.