It will be caught as a compiler error. Since you would typically have the method...

		skippytheroo on March 11, 2016 \| parent \| context \| favorite \| on: JEP 286: Local-Variable Type Inference It will be caught as a compiler error. Since you would typically have the method signature declare that it returns the most general type it should be a non-issue. It's really no different from breaking code today by changing a method signature in an API.