Bracha Sun Microsystems Expert Group Bell Labs IBM Inprise Kresten Krab Thorup Martin Odersky Software AG Sun Microsystems Symantec Expert Group already formed. Ultimately, the Java Language Specification should be revised to integrate the proposed changes. The proposed specification will include language changes. If necessary, it may contain class file format changes needed to implement it.
Specification updates as well.
However, the Java programming language lacks the ability to specify generic types. As a result, programs are unnecessarily hard to read and maintain, and are more likely to fail with runtime type errors. This can only be addressed at the language level, i.e., by the Java Language Specification. These are well established constructs for genericity that have been used by numerous other programming languages, and received extensive theoretical study. Upward compatibility with existing code.