Intro to Generics in Go: Type Parameters, Type Inference and Constraints

Sun, 23 Jan 2022 21:10:00 -0500

Generic programming for statically typed languages is a tool for building maintainable software. Generics have a lot of advantages and can create infinitely reusable code, they do however, have a history of being overused and misunderstood leading to anti-patterns¹. Due to the regularity of misuse the Go team has been reluctant to add generics to the language.

Beginning in February 2022, Go will introduce generics support in its 1.18 release². The Go team spent many years researching and experimenting with different implementations of generics and their implications for Go. The Go team believes they have found an implementation that is both effective and, more importantly, maintains the simplicity of the language.³

An Overview of Generic Programming: Writing Code with Arbitrary Types

Sat, 22 Jan 2022 20:10:00 -0500

Generic Programming is a specialized form of programming in some languages (primarily statically typed languages) where code is written to process objects of any arbitrary type. The distinction between generic programming and normal programming is when writing generic code the “type” (often denoted T) of the data is not explicitly stated. The generic programming paradigm is challenging to master because it requires a high level of abstraction (ignoring the type of data in its entirety).

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Intro to Generics in Go: Type Parameters, Type Inference and Constraints

An Overview of Generic Programming: Writing Code with Arbitrary Types