 Generics & Java
started 5/12/2001; 12:35:18 AM - last post 5/12/2001; 1:02:24 PM
|
|
Chris Rathman - Generics & Java 
5/12/2001; 12:35:18 AM (reads: 1180, responses: 1)
|
|
| Generics & Java |
|
Newstory in Java Lobby about Generics being integrated with Java. Mostly about how Sun is starting to accept the folks that implemented GJ - they are to be commended for their efforts.
Consider me a skeptic, but the main achievement of generics (templates) seems to be smooth collection classes. That thing so easily achieved in dynamic languages like Smalltalk seems to be elusive of the statically typed languages like Java, Eiffel and C++.
Why is it that things that are considered to be milestones within generics are taken for granted in languages that don't enforce compile time type checking? Ok, so we get into the age old debate of dynamic versus static languages. But I'm still trying to figure out what generics have to offer - other than mimicking dynamic languages. I love the strongly typed inferential languages like ML & Haskell, but they are are far cry from the above.
Posted to admin by Chris Rathman on 5/12/01; 12:43:44 AM
|
|
|
|
Ehud Lamm - Re: Generics & Java
5/12/2001; 1:02:24 PM (reads: 819, responses: 0)
|
|
|
One (but only one) of the uses of generics is to allow type-safe solutions to typing restrictions. Since restrictions are bad, but typing is useful, I find this a virtue.
There are many other uses, among them solving covariance issues, that otherwise are quite problematic (and in Java are sometimes solved, god forgive us, using reflection).
|
|
|
|