Why is Java prohibiting inheritance of inner interfaces?

Question

I.e. why is the following \"cyclic dependency\" not possible?

public class Something implements Behavior {
    public interface Behavior {
        // ...
    }
}         


        

Answer 1

Imagine you are the compiler.

We are saying you to create a class Something. This class implements Behavior... But Behavior does not exist yet because Something is not already registered...

Do you understand the problem ?

See class as box which contains things. Behavior is contained in the box Something. But Something does not exist.