JEP proposal: Improved variance for generic classes and interfaces

[Remi Forax]

On 10/27/2014 11:52 PM, Dan Smith wrote:
>> On Oct 26, 2014, at 4:53 PM, elias vasylenko <eliasvasylenko at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Just a quick question/suggestion: it seems like a handy side-effect of the proposed changes is the potential for relaxation of the limitation on reimplementation of interfaces with different generic parametrisations, and I'm wondering if you've considered this.
>>
>> For example, it should be possible to allow something like this:
>>
>>      class Foo implements Predicate<Integer> {}
>>
>>      class Bar extends Foo implements Predicate<Number> {}
>>
>> Since declaration-site variance guarantees compatibility of the overriding parametrisation. Of course we can't technically override test(Integer) with test(Number)... but from an outsiders perspective I don't see this as incompatible with current language design philosophy... At any rate, covariance should be more straightforward
>>
>> I'm sure this would have come up if it hasn't already, but I couldn't find any explicit mention of it.
> That's a good idea, and not something we've looked into yet.  Thanks for the suggestion.
>
> —Dan

The problem here is not a typing problem but an erasure problem, both 
Predicate<Integer> and Predicate<Number> require to generate a bridge 
method but both test(Integer) and test(Number) have the same erasure 
test(Object). So it's not possible without full reification to implement 
that bridge.

cheers,
Rémi