Actually, yes. Not directly, but you can do it. Simply include a generic parameter and then derive from the generic type.
public interface Negatable<T> {
T negate();
}
public static <T extends Negatable<T>> T normalize(T a) {
return a.negate().negate();
}
You would implement this interface like so
public static class MyBoolean implements Negatable<MyBoolean> {
public boolean a;
public MyBoolean(boolean a) {
this.a = a;
}
@Override
public MyBoolean negate() {
return new MyBoolean(!this.a);
}
}
In fact, the Java standard library uses this exact trick to implement Comparable
.
public interface Comparable<T> {
int compareTo(T o);
}