This is a handle (a connection) to some resource, which may be a class, native library, text file, image, etc. Handles are returned by a ResourceFinder. A resource handle allows easy access to the resource data (using methods {@link #getInputStream} or {@link #getBytes}) as well as access resource metadata, such as attributes, certificates, etc.
As soon as the handle is no longer in use, it should be explicitly {@link #close}d, similarly to I/O streams.
@version $Rev: 704201 $ $Date: 2008-10-13 20:52:25 +0200 (Mon, 13 Oct 2008) $