...Existing code such as

	Class a = boolean ? A.class : B.class;

should compile without error, in spite of the fact that (with generics
enabled) neither A.class nor B.class is a subtype of the  xxxxx .  With
wildcards, the result type should be

	Class<?>

Or, if A is a base class of B,

	Class<? extends A>

This is a backward compatibility issue.

N/A

Indeed, class Class can only be generified with a version of the compiler
that supports wildcards.

The proposed semantics of type inference of ?: for object types is the
same as for a call to a method with the signature

    <T> T f(boolean, T, T)

(Without wildcards, we would have to infer Object for T, which breaks
compatibility)

 xxxxx@xxxxx  2003-06-19