java wild card List<?> is reifiable but not List<Object>

How List<?> and List<Object> is not reifiable what is the exact reason for this. I didn't understand the intent behind that. As the java generics is implemented by type erasure but not by dynamic casts etc.. while compilation, what is the reasoning behind the that, It seems to be confusing to me to grasp the exact concept, what compiler will do exactly inside while generating the byte code.

edited Mar 23 '14 at 12:50

aliteralmind

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asked Mar 23 '14 at 12:10

Curious

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Your title is "why wild card list is reifiable" and your first sentence is "How List> ... is not reifiable"; please clarify what you're asking. – Oliver Charlesworth Mar 23 '14 at 12:13
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this is well explained in bloch's effective java: http://www.eecs.qmul.ac.uk/~mmh/APD/bloch/generics.pdf – Zavior Mar 23 '14 at 12:14
Thanks Abhinav and zavior for the answer. – Curious Mar 23 '14 at 12:18
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something whose information is not available at runtime. – Kumar Abhinav Mar 23 '14 at 12:23
@AbhinavKumar I saw your link and got detailed answer :) – Vipin Mar 23 '14 at 12:24

java wild card List is reifiable but not List

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