Re: Can this callback mechanism be generified?

Casper Bang wrote:

> ...to the final version, where the type of my callback is extracted 
> rather than having to be supplied explicitly:
> 
> installCallback( new Callback<Date>(){
>         public String format(Date date) {
>             return SimpleDateFormat.getInstance().format(date);
>         }
>     });

I agree this part is easier to read, I just don't see the rest of the 
code much improved (pulling the type by name from the interface name was 
a pretty good trick.  With luck, we'll get reifiable types in Java 7 and 
then nonsense like that will be unneeded.)

I guess I don't see the advantage of Class<?> over just Class, when 
you're going to cast it yourself anyway.  Given the nature of the 
problem, the second form seems more clear and correct -- it says "I'm 
not using generics, I'm tracking the type of Class myself."  Class<?> 
implies to me that you can't and won't resolve the type of Class<C>
further.

I might be off base here, I haven't had a need to play around with 
generic beyond basic functions, so please take this as discussion, not 
dogma.