static Class<?> _getClass(String name) {
  try {
    ret Class.forName(name);
  } catch (ClassNotFoundException e) {
    null; // could optimize this
  }
}

static Class _getClass(O o) {
  ret o == null ? null
    : o instanceof Class ? (Class) o : o.getClass();
}

static Class _getClass(O realm, S name) {
  try {
    ret classLoaderForObject(realm).loadClass(classNameToVM(name));
  } catch (ClassNotFoundException e) {
    null; // could optimize this
  }
}