Generics question

[Rikesh Desai]

Source : ExamLab

class A<E> {
}

class GenClass<E extends A>{
public<T extends E> A<? super T> getNow (A <? super T> a) //line 2
{
return new A(); //line 1
}

}

At line 1, why is new E() not possible??
As from line 2,
? super T --> E super T which implies T extends E
T extends E from --> public <T extends E>...

everything matches, then why is new A(); only possible and not new E()??

[Maren Fisher]

You cannot do "new E()" because E is just a placeholder for a type that will be defined when you instantiate the class. The compiler does not know what type E represents.

You can do new A because A is a concrete class. But for E all you know is it is a type that extends A, but you don't know what that type that is. Hence you cannot do new E();