Support Forums: Message List - Usability and Java 1.5 generics vs. Autocasting

hey

Fri, 08 Feb 2013 01:18:41 -0500

Java is still KING

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great

Fri, 08 Feb 2013 00:44:57 -0500

Java for me too!!generic is blah!

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This isn't exactly new

Wed, 19 May 2004 14:28:34 -0400

I worked in the MIT Programming Methodology Group and we had a proposal to extend the Java VM to have real generic types back in 1996. It's just a shame that Sun has taken nearly a decade to incorporate generics and now Java has so much legacy code that...

RE: A more fundamental problem is being solved by generics

Wed, 19 May 2004 12:47:30 -0400

... This might become more obvious when a competitor like C# comes out with its first class generics, and the tools come out to fully exploit it.If you were to take an arbitrary object in memory that had some public java.util.List members in...

You can do that...

Wed, 19 May 2004 11:19:18 -0400

...with the JDK 1.4!

The problem is that the standard library doesn't implement it.

There are some missing bits, because the compiler doesn't let the programmer use a Class object instead of the class name itself. Which would be very cool...

A more fundamental problem is being solved by generics

Mon, 17 May 2004 14:33:55 -0400

I Agree. TYPELESSNESS is what's hurting Java at the moment. Ambiguous interfaces using Object and XML descriptors in which everything is a String is where current Java complexity lies. generics + attributes seem to provide a piece of the solution....

Generics, Thumbs Down Pile On

Mon, 17 May 2004 10:56:17 -0400

I'm a major proponent of keeping a language as simple as possible. I believe if you minimize keywords and the number of ways to do any one thing you've improved the language.

I understand the need for certain syntactical enhancements (e.g.,...

Vehemently Opposed to Generics in Java

Sun, 16 May 2004 08:11:42 -0400

I realize that it is impossible now to halt the addition of generics to Java, but I want to go on record as being completely opposed to this change. I have extensive experience with Java, and I have extensive experience with two other languages that...

Generics CAN Catch This

Fri, 14 May 2004 15:05:12 -0400

The need for typedefs increases proportionally to the number of nested generic classes in your type statement. ArrayList>> is a pretty cumbersome way of saying you want a sparse matrix of string objects...

Typedefs

Fri, 14 May 2004 14:46:45 -0400

Typedefs would make generics 'look' nicer. Then again, you do not see what is under the typedefs. Then you could have typedefs of typedefs to further complicate the stuff. IDEs would show the full definitions of course, but is it really worth...

Generics CAN Catch This

Fri, 14 May 2004 14:27:02 -0400

Hi Alok!

You're right: auto-casting won't work here. However, the generics in Java 1.5 *will* allow the compiler to catch this error. Here's the generic version:

List l = new...

RE: I like generics

Fri, 14 May 2004 13:41:50 -0400

I think the generics syntax is quite simple and intuitive. What is so difficult in creating a HashMap by passing two parameters (one the key type and the other the Value type).

I don't think this is where the confusion will come...

RE: Performance vs Ease Of Use

Fri, 14 May 2004 13:40:14 -0400

From reading all the comments, pro's and con's it seems that Han's first point is the reason why Generics will improve Java for newbies - not so much that they will use it, but that the libraries they use will use it.

Generics vastly improves...

Performance will be improved

Fri, 14 May 2004 12:34:16 -0400

A lot of generics performance work has gone into the JVM for 1.5. The compiler inserts casts in a certain way that makes it easy for the JVM to prove that no objects of the wrong type can be used in certain ways. This means much of your generic code's...

RE: Performance vs Ease Of Use

Fri, 14 May 2004 11:53:26 -0400

I might be in the minority on this, but the documentation isn't that bad. Yes, it has the generic parameters, but what were you expecting? The portion that Sam quoted was merely the technical preamble to the documentation. The rest looks and feels like...