Use composition not extends (yes I mean extends, as in a reference to the extends keyword in java and yes this is inheritance). Composition is superier because it completely shields your implementation, allowing you to change the implementation without impacting the users of your class.
I recommend trying something like this (I'm typing directly into this window, so buyer beware of syntax errors):
public LimitedSizeQueue implements Queue
{
private int maxSize;
private LinkedList storageArea;
public LimitedSizeQueue(final int maxSize)
{
this.maxSize = maxSize;
storageArea = new LinkedList();
}
public boolean offer(ElementType element)
{
if (storageArea.size() < maxSize)
{
storageArea.addFirst(element);
}
else
{
... remove last element;
storageArea.addFirst(element);
}
}
... the rest of this class
A better option (based on the answer by Asaf) might be to wrap the Apache Collections CircularFifoBuffer with a generic class. For example:
public LimitedSizeQueue<ElementType> implements Queue<ElementType>
{
private int maxSize;
private CircularFifoBuffer storageArea;
public LimitedSizeQueue(final int maxSize)
{
if (maxSize > 0)
{
this.maxSize = maxSize;
storateArea = new CircularFifoBuffer(maxSize);
}
else
{
throw new IllegalArgumentException("blah blah blah");
}
}
... implement the Queue interface using the CircularFifoBuffer class
}