Bruce Eckel's MindView, Inc: 3-10-04 Generics Aren't - The Diigo Meta page

• 25 Nov 08
  

  Joe Miller

  java

• 22 Aug 07
  

  Navneet Kumar

  article bruceeckel c++ java parameterized_type templating Generics

  • Java Generics use "erasure," which drops everything back to  Object if you try to say "any type." So when I say  <T>, it doesn't really mean "anything" like C++/ADA/Python  etc. does, it means "Object."
  • generics have no advantage. In fact, it's confusing if you  see them used, because you scratch your head and wonder "why does he need a  generic here? What is the advantage?" Answer: none.
  • So if we write generic code that actually takes a "type of anything," that  type can only be an Object, and our generic code must only call  Object methods on it.
  • Generics seem to only solve the problem of  automatically casting in and out of containers.
  • So generics are really "autocasting."
  • That's the way of the Java world, and we are going to miss out on latent typing (it's actually possible to simulate latent typing using reflection, as I do once or twice in Thinking in Java, but it's messy and much less elegant).

  4 more annotations...

• 09 Mar 06
  

  rsearjeant

  generics Python latentTyping Java C#

• 16 Dec 05
  

  abditus

  Yet another reason the designers of Java need to be taken out and beaten.

  Imported Bookmarks

  • 3-10-04 Generics Aren't

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