...is not abstract and does not override abstract method compare

Question

Why am I getting the above compile error when I am very clearly overriding abstract method compare (ditto abstract method compareTo)? Here is my code -- which was presented 1.5 code and I'm trying to retrofit to 1.4 -- followed by the complete compile time error. Thanks in advance for your help (even though I'm sure this is an easy question for you experts):
import java.util.*;
   This program sorts a set of item by comparing
   their descriptions.
public class TreeSetTest
   public static void main(String[] args)
      SortedSet parts = new TreeSet();
      parts.add(new Item("Toaster", 1234));
      parts.add(new Item("Widget", 4562));
      parts.add(new Item("Modem", 9912));
      System.out.println(parts);
      SortedSet sortByDescription = new TreeSet(new
         Comparator()
            public int compare(Item a, Item b)   // LINE CAUSING THE ERROR
               String descrA = a.getDescription();
               String descrB = b.getDescription();
               return descrA.compareTo(descrB);
      sortByDescription.addAll(parts);
      System.out.println(sortByDescription);
   An item with a description and a part number.
class Item implements Comparable     
      Constructs an item.
      @param aDescription the item's description
      @param aPartNumber the item's part number
   public Item(String aDescription, int aPartNumber)
      description = aDescription;
      partNumber = aPartNumber;
      Gets the description of this item.
      @return the description
   public String getDescription()
      return description;
   public String toString()
      return "[descripion=" + description
         + ", partNumber=" + partNumber + "]";
   public boolean equals(Object otherObject)
      if (this == otherObject) return true;
      if (otherObject == null) return false;
      if (getClass() != otherObject.getClass()) return false;
      Item other = (Item) otherObject;
      return description.equals(other.description)
         && partNumber == other.partNumber;
   public int hashCode()
      return 13 * description.hashCode() + 17 * partNumber;
   public int compareTo(Item other)   // OTHER LINE CAUSING THE ERROR
      return partNumber - other.partNumber;
   private String description;
   private int partNumber;
}Compiler error:
TreeSetTest.java:25: <anonymous TreeSetTest$1> is not abstract and does not over
ride abstract method compare(java.lang.Object,java.lang.Object) in java.util.Com
parator
            public int compare(Item a, Item b)
                       ^
TreeSetTest.java:41: Item is not abstract and does not override abstract method
compareTo(java.lang.Object) in java.lang.Comparable
class Item implements Comparable
^
2 errors

Answer 1

According to the book I'm reading, if you merely take
out the generic from the code, it should compile and
run in v1.4 (assuming, of course, that the class
exists in 1.4). I don't know what book you are reading but that's certainly incorrect or incomplete at least. I've manually retrofitted code to 1.4, and you'll be inserting casts as well as replacing type references with Object (or the erased type, to be more precise).
These interfaces do exist in 1.4, and
without the generics.Exactly. Which means compareTo takes an Object, and you should change your overriding method accordingly.
But this raises a new question: how does my 1.4
compiler know anything about generics? It doesn't and it can't. As the compiler is telling you, those interfaces expect Object. Think about it, you want to implement one interface which declares a method argument type of Object, in several classes, each with a different type. Obviously all of those are not valid overrides.