Java APIs

Hello,

As I understand it, generics types are a feature of the compiler, not the compiled class. So if I compile some classes (containing parameterized types/generics), the compiler helps check type safety. But once they're compiled, if generics really are just "a compiler features", in any other Java code that I write that refers to the compiled classes, it seems perfectly possible that I could refer to methods in the compiled class using inappropriate casts/types, because the generic information is present in the source code, and no longer present in the compiled class.

This seems to be a big limitation, as it would mean I'd lose the benefits of generics when working with the core API or compiled classes (especially likely with JAR files...). I must be missing something here, anyone able to help me understand how parameterized types can be used when referring to compiled classes (for which I don't have access to the source code) from my own Java code?

Thanks,
Chris B.