What is classpath hell and is/was it really a problem for Java?

Question

What is classpath hell and is/was it really a problem for Java?

Answer 1

There's lot of good stuff here http://mindprod.com/jgloss/classpath.html and http://java.sun.com/javase/6/docs/technotes/tools/windows/classpath.html

I've only had issues with classpaths when I am not setting is myself using -cp. Trying to figure out how your third-party software sets their classpaths can be a pain at times.