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copied!<p>There are a few possible breaks I can see</p> <ul> <li>you assume that clients will use a new overloaded method, but they don't because the code hasn't been recompiled.</li> <li>you add a method which the client already had which does something different.</li> <li>you add a method which means their subclasses break when recompiled. IMHO This is desirable.</li> <li>you change the return type, method name or parameters types which will cause an Error at runtime.</li> <li>you swap parameters of the same type. This is possibly the worst and most subtle bug. ;)</li> </ul> <p>IMHO, It's the subtle problems which are more likely to cause you grief. However, I wouldn't assume that simply adding a method will break the code and I wouldn't assume that if a client's code isn't getting runtime error means they are using the latest version of anything. ;)</p> <hr> <p>If I compile this code</p> <pre><code>public interface MyInterface { void method1(); // void method2(); } public class Main implements MyInterface { @Override public void method1() { System.out.println("method1 called"); } public static void main(String... args) { new Main().method1(); } } </code></pre> <p>it prints</p> <pre><code>method1 called </code></pre> <p>I then uncomment method2() and recompile just the interface. This means the interface has a method the <code>Main</code> doesn't implement. Yet when I run it without recompiling <code>Main</code> I get</p> <pre><code>method1 called </code></pre> <hr> <p>If I have</p> <pre><code>public class Main implements MyInterface { public void method1() { System.out.println("method1 called"); } public void method2() { System.out.println("method2 called"); } public static void main(String... args) { new Main().method1(); } } </code></pre> <p>and I run with <code>// method2()</code> commented out, I don't have a problem.</p>

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