The following applet is unable to load sun.jdbc.odbc.JdbcOdbcDriver
via Class.forName with Java Plug-In 1.2.1. This code works properly
when loaded with the 1.1 JVM, and works intermittently with the appletviewer from JDK 1.2.1.

//import java.applet.Applet;
import javax.swing.*;
import java.awt.*;
    

public class driver extends JApplet {
    public void init() {
getContentPane().setLayout(null);
setSize(426,266);

String driverClass = "sun.jdbc.odbc.JdbcOdbcDriver";
        try {
            Class.forName(driverClass).newInstance();
            System.out.println("Class " + driverClass + " was found OK");
} catch( Exception e) {
            System.out.println("Class " + driverClass + " was not found");
}

driverClass = "javax.swing.JApplet";
try {
            Class.forName(driverClass).newInstance();
            System.out.println("Class " + driverClass + " was found OK");
} catch( Exception e) {
            System.out.println("Class " + driverClass + " was not found");
}
    }
}

Output when the applet fails:

% appletviewer driver-noplugin.html
Class sun.jdbc.odbc.JdbcOdbcDriver was not found
Class javax.swing.JApplet was found OK
%

Expected output:
% appletviewer driver-noplugin.html
Class sun.jdbc.odbc.JdbcOdbcDriver was found OK
Class javax.swing.JApplet was found OK
%