Description Marcelo Paternostro 2009-02-10 15:49:56 EST

We are dealing with a library that has the following classes


   pack1
       public abstract Class1<T> implements Iterator<T>
           abstract Iterator getPendingChildren(T n); // package-protected

       public class Class2<T> extends Class1<T>
           @Override
           Iterator<? extends T> getPendingChildren(Object n) {...}


This code compiles fine (no errors and no warnings) on Eclipse (3.5 M5 on my machine) and during the PDE build (3.2.1) so it seems that Class2.getPendingChildren(Object) is indeed considered an override of Class1.getPendingChildren(T).

Then, inside a method on, say, pack2.Foo, there is a code like this


   Iterator<Bar> i = new Class2<Bar>() {
     //overide a method that is not getPendingChildren
   }


Again no problems, so everything looks good.

The problem happens when I run this code as a stand-alone application (I tried it with Sun and IBM JVMs, 5 and 6 versions). I get this exception


  Exception in thread "Thread-0" java.lang.Error: Unresolved compilation problem: 
  This class must implement the inherited abstract method Class2<Bar>.getPendingChildren(Bar), but cannot override it since it is not visible from new Class1(){}. Either make the type abstract or make the inherited method visible.


I think I understand the exception. What is puzzling me is why Eclipse is compiling the classes above (pack1.Class2 specially) without any problems.