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Date: Mon, 30 May 2011 15:19:37 +1000
From: Esmond Pitt <esmond.pitt@bigpond.com>
Reply-To: not.esmond.pitt@not.bigpond.com
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Subject: Re: Java generics and type erasure
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On 28/05/2011 12:18 AM, Lew wrote:
> Esmond Pitt wrote:
> SO it IS a runtime phenomenon that the generic information IN THE CLASS
> FILE is ignored.
>
> Better?

Not even different. The type information present in the source code is 
not present in the byte code. It is erased by the compiler. Ergo that 
happens at compile time. The compiler puts type information elsewhere in 
the class file for its own use, also at compile time. There is no 
runtime action anywhere here. Absence of a phenomenon isn't itself a 
phenomenon.