In Java, I define an abstract class with both concrete and abstract methods in it, and it has to be subclassed independently by third-party developers. Just to be sure: are there any changes I could make to the abstract class that are source compatible with their classes but not binary compatible? In other words: after they have compiled their subclasses, could I change the abstract class - apart from e.g. adding an abstract method to it or removing a protected method from it that is called by subclasses, which are of course source incompatible - in a way that could force them to recompile their subclasses?
If it isn't too late to change your system, I would suggest that you do that. Overriding is usually not a good way to customize functionality, as it is incredibly fragile. For example, if you later use a method name that your clients have used (which they are now unintentionally automatically overriding), then it is possible that the override will completely break the invariants of your class. A usually better way of providing customization is to give your clients an interface which is limited to just the customized behavior, and then you have a fully concrete class that depends on an instance of this interface, and delegates appropriately to the interface when it needs to use the customized behaviors. This way, your code and your client's code are completely separated, and they won't interfere with each other.