Instantiating a network: do I need to use IllegalAccessExceptions?

Question

Hi, all!
As most of you have been reading already, I'm working on an agent-based model. It runs fine, but I need to rub off some of the rough edges. I am creating a network of nodes and links, and doing so with the class object Network.java, which I call in the main class before I start doing stuff to that network. I'm unsure that the network I'm creating is the same as the network I THINK I'm creating, so I'm going through the class I made to ensure that there are no problems. I see some issues with this class (it only contains one method to instantiate the network).
(1) Do I really need to use the try/catch statement, and if not, how can I clean it up?
(2) I'm getting a type safety warning when I declare list--Eclipse is telling me that the expression of type ArrayList needs unchecked conversion to conform to List<Node>. What am I doing wrong there?
(3) Another type safety warning when using NetUtilities in creating "network" at the bottom--the expression of type List needs unchecked conversion to conform to Collection<? extends Node>.
(4) When I use the randomRewireSymmetric method at the bottom, am I simply tacking the rewireProb parameter onto the list of parameters available to me in the main method when I instantiate Network?
     public static List <Node> createTarahsNetwork(int cols, int rows, boolean wrapAround, int connectRadius,
               double rewireProb, Class <Node> node, Class <Edge> edge) {
          List <Node> list = null;
          SquareLatticeNet net = new SquareLatticeNet(node, edge, cols, rows, wrapAround, connectRadius);
          try {
               list = net.createSquareLatticeNet();
          catch (IllegalAccessException ex) {
               SimUtilities.showError("Error creating SquareLatticeNet", ex);
               System.exit(0);
          catch (InstantiationException ex) {
               SimUtilities.showError("Error creating SquareLatticeNet", ex);
               System.exit(0);
          ArrayList <Node> network = new ArrayList <Node> (NetUtilities.randomRewireSymmetric(list, rewireProb));
          return network;
     }Thanks, all!

Answer 1

So I went and looked at the Constructor class; I don't believe this method uses reflection, so I canned those Exceptions. I've reworked the method with an inheritor class from the original class I was using to make my network, and here's the result.
     public static List <Node> makeMyNetwork(int cols, int rows, boolean wrapAround, int connectRadius,
               double rewireProb, Class <Node> node, Class <Edge> edge) {
          List <Node> list = null;
          list = NetworkFactory.createSquareLatticeNetwork(cols, rows, wrapAround, connectRadius,
                    node, edge);          
          ArrayList <Node> network = new ArrayList <Node> (NetUtilities.randomRewireSymmetric(list, rewireProb));
          return network;
     }I'm still getting those two type safety messages though. What should I do?