Using int as a type parameter for java.util.Dictionary

Question

When I try to declare a Dictionary as such:

private Dictionary map;

The compiler gives me the following error:

Answer 1

In .Net, "primitive" types are backed by objects. In Java, there's a hard distinction between primitive types and Objects. Java 5 introduced autoboxing, which can coerce between the two in certain situations. However, because the Java generics system uses type-erasure, there isn't enough information to autobox in this case.