[fpc-devel] Generics Basics

[dannym]

Hi,

Am Donnerstag, den 10.11.2005, 20:24 +1100 schrieb John Briggs:
> On Tue, Nov 08, 2005 at 10:00:49PM +0100, dannym wrote:
> > Hi,
> > 
> > Am Dienstag, den 08.11.2005, 18:10 -0200 schrieb Felipe Monteiro de
> > Carvalho:
> > > Hello,
> > > 
> > > I am trying to understand what exactly generics are. I read the wiki
> > > page, but there are lot's of code examples and very few explanations.
> > > Can someone explain it to me in a (relatively) simple way?
> > > 
> > > What problem is it trying to solve?
> > 
> > It makes types parametrizable.
> > 
> Just my two cents worth:
> 
> To me generics should essentially make FPC a typeless language. 

no, more typesafe, rather.

> i.e. everthing
> is an object and you just pass messages between objects, ala Smalltalk. 

No

> How it
> is implemented is a moot point because at the top level you shouldn't be able 
> to see the implementation of the objects.

Depends on what you mean by "see"

> 
> The one thing that does concern me is why implement generics if you fail to 
> implement the late binding of the objects which to me is the greatest gain of
> generic programming.

Can you explain that some more?

> 
> Feel free to shoot me down in flames as I have not been following this
> discussion fully to understand all of its details
> 
> John

cheers,
   Danny