FULL PRODUCT VERSION :
1.6.0

A DESCRIPTION OF THE PROBLEM :
The javac compiler reports an "illegal start of expression" error when trying to compile:

Object o = (Collections.<String>emptyList()).toString();

However, it accepts the non-generic version:

Object o = (Collections.emptyList()).toString();

It seems to be a problem with explicitly passing the type parameter to the generic method, and wrapping the method invocation expression with parentheses.

STEPS TO FOLLOW TO REPRODUCE THE PROBLEM :
Try compiling the included source code.


EXPECTED VERSUS ACTUAL BEHAVIOR :
EXPECTED -
The compilation should succeed.
ACTUAL -
d:\home\TestExplicitGenericDecl.java:9: illegal start of expression
        Object o = (a.<Object>id("foo")).toString();
                      ^
d:\home\TestExplicitGenericDecl.java:10: illegal start of expression
        Object o2 = (Collections.<String>emptyList()).toString();
                                 ^
2 errors

REPRODUCIBILITY :
This bug can be reproduced always.

---------- BEGIN SOURCE ----------
import java.util.*;

public class TestExplicitGenericDecl {

    private <T> T id(T x) { return x; }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        TestExplicitGenericDecl a = new TestExplicitGenericDecl();
        Object o = (a.<Object>id("foo")).toString();
        Object o2 = (Collections.<String>emptyList()).toString();
    }
}

---------- END SOURCE ----------