Help wanted with Java generics

from_AppleImage.java

/**
 * AppleImage is an abstract class that represents a generic interface
 * for handing graphic images.  This abstraction is needed because not
 * all graphic routines use BufferedImage.  AppleImage itself acts as
 * a factory for creating "the best" AppleImage subclass.
 * <p>
 * Date Created: Mar 25, 2003
 * @author Rob Greene
 */
public abstract class AppleImage {
	/**
	 * The specific file extension to use.
	 */
	private String fileExtension;
	/**
	 * All available image formats.  This is instance specific since
	 * (in theory) there could be different AppleImages being used.
	 */
	private String[] availableExtensions;
	/**
	 * Create a specific instance of AppleImage.  This has been coded
	 * using Reflection to ease native compilation for the most part.
	 */
	public static AppleImage create(int width, int height) {
		String[] classes = {
			"ImageIoImage", "SunJpegImage", "SwtImage" }; //$NON-NLS-1$ //$NON-NLS-2$ //$NON-NLS-3$
		Class[] constructorArgClasses = new Class[] {
			int.class, int.class };
		Object[] constructorArgs = new Object[] {
			new Integer(width), new Integer(height) };
		for (int i=0; i<classes.length; i++) {
			try {
				Class appleImageClass = Class.forName(
					"com.webcodepro.applecommander.storage.filters.imagehandlers."  //$NON-NLS-1$
					+ classes[i]);
				Constructor constructor = 
					appleImageClass.getConstructor(constructorArgClasses);
				AppleImage appleImage = (AppleImage) 
					constructor.newInstance(constructorArgs);
				return appleImage;
			} catch (Exception ignored) {
				// There are multiple exceptions that can be thrown here.
				// For the most part, this is expected and simply means that
				// the image handler is not available on the platform.
			}
		}
		return null;
	}

Apparently the solution looks something like this:

diff --git a/src/com/webcodepro/applecommander/storage/filters/imagehandlers/AppleImage.java b/src/com/webcodepro/applecommander/storage/filters/imagehandlers/AppleImage.java
index 5376ef1..540c15b 100644
--- a/src/com/webcodepro/applecommander/storage/filters/imagehandlers/AppleImage.java
+++ b/src/com/webcodepro/applecommander/storage/filters/imagehandlers/AppleImage.java
@@ -49,17 +49,17 @@ public abstract class AppleImage {
 	public static AppleImage create(int width, int height) {
 		String[] classes = {
 			"ImageIoImage", "SunJpegImage", "SwtImage" }; //$NON-NLS-1$ //$NON-NLS-2$ //$NON-NLS-3$
-		Class[] constructorArgClasses = new Class[] {
-			int.class, int.class };
+		Class<?> constructorArgType = AppleImage.class;
+		Class<?>[] constructorArgClasses = new Class[] { AppleImage.class };
 		Object[] constructorArgs = new Object[] {
 			new Integer(width), new Integer(height) };
 		for (int i=0; i<classes.length; i++) {
 			try {
-				Class appleImageClass = Class.forName(
+				Class<?> appleImageClass = Class.forName(
 					"com.webcodepro.applecommander.storage.filters.imagehandlers."  //$NON-NLS-1$
 					+ classes[i]);
-				Constructor constructor = 
-					appleImageClass.getConstructor(constructorArgClasses);
+				Constructor constructor =
+					constructorArgType.getConstructor(constructorArgClasses);
 				AppleImage appleImage = (AppleImage) 
 					constructor.newInstance(constructorArgs);
 				return appleImage;

I can't say I fully understand that.