I have found setting the property user.dir useful. I'm not sure how if it works all the time, but it has worked when I have needed it.

It seems the short answer is you can't.

See my feature request at
Ability to set working directory for program properties

Whenever you "Run Main" or "Run in Applet Viewer", VAJ is automatically set to look for resources for the Project/Package combination that houses the class you've selected for running.

Even though the Java platform doesn't require it, IBM's VAJ requires you to organize packages and default packages within the IDE. I find it helpful actually, since you can work with your packages without scrolling up and down through hundreds of packages.

I think this is where you would always want to run undeployed classes in your IDE. This way, any resource files (GIFs or HTML for example) can be used for unit testing before deployment as well as be grouped together so you don't forget where your assets are...

Michael Murphy