very complex object casting problem, experts needed.

[Pouncer]

my problem is quite complex, i will try my best to explain it to you guys.

I'm working on an competition system that should work for any kind of game. I'm just testing this system with 'noughts and crosses' as the game. Basically, students submit their computer players and my system accepts and compiles their code, and loads instances of it onto an applet

So for e.g, the student would implement a makeMove() method (compulsory methods are in ComputerPlayerInterface.java which each submission must implement)

my problem is this: for noughts and crosses i would probably use 2d array to represent the board data, so in ComputerPlayerInterface.java i would have this method signature meaning that all submitted computer players must also have this method:

int[][] makeMove(int[][] boardData);

but i need this to be generic for any kind of game, not just for noughts and crosses. i've been told by others to have something like:

GameAnswer makeMove(GameData gameData);

but i'm not sure about how i go about doing it. the gamedata could be of any type, depending on the kind of game the competition is for.

[ComputerJy]

User Generics.. Look it up

[Pouncer]

but i can only have 1 ComputerPlayerInterface.java for every kind of game

with generics, doesnt this mean ill have to change the type for every game.. which is not what i want to do

[pgag45]

generic classes looks to the perfect solution to the problem you have described...