Java generic method inheritance and override rules

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What we are having here is two different methods with individual type parameters each.

public abstract <T extends AnotherClass> void getAndParse(Args... args);

This is a method with a type parameter named T, and bounded by AnotherClass, meaning each subtype of AnotherClass is allowed as a type parameter.

public <SpecificClass> void getAndParse(Args... args)

This is a method with a type parameter named SpecificClass, bounded by Object (meaning each type is allowed as a type parameter). Do you really want this?

Is the type parameter used inside Args? I think the problem would be there.

The meaning of 

public abstract <T extends AnotherClass> void getAndParse(T... args);

is that the caller of the method can decide with which type parameter he wants to call the method, as long as this is some subtype of AnotherClass. This means that in effect the method can be called with any objects of type AnotherClass.

Since the caller can decide the type parameter, you can’t in a subclass narrow down the parameter type to SpecificClass – this would not be an implementation of the method, but another method with same name (overloading).

Maybe you want something like this:

public abstract class GetAndParse<T extends AnotherClass> {
  public SomeClass var;

  public abstract void getAndParse(T... args);
}

public class Implementor extends GetAndParse<SpecificClass> {
  // some field declarations

  // some method declarations

  @Override
  public void getAndParse(SpecificClass... args) {
    // method body making use of args
  }
}

Now the getAndParse method implements the parent class’ method.

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