web-inf\classes and where the JVM loads Tomcat servlets

[Randall Parker <ra...@nls.net>]

Does Tomcat only use the list of classes under web-inf\classes to know what are valid servlets?

What I'd like to do during development is to have Tomcat load servlet classes from the classpath and not from web-inf\classes.

I wouldn't mind putting files in web-inf\classes if it wasn't necessary to copy them there after every source code change and 
recompile. 

So how does Tomcat do the actual class loading for a HttpServlet class? Does it use the classpath? Or does first check the 
web-inf\classes directories?

The reason I ask this is that I'm using an IDE that is not file-based, VAJ.