Generics

Status

Java 5 includes generics as part of the language. Here is a tutorial I wrote on the topic, I recommend the book by Wadler and Naftalin for anyone who wants to gain a thorough understanding of this topic.

History

The version of generics used in the Java programming language evolved from an prototype called GJ which in turn was derived from Pizza. Pizza was designed by Martin Odersky and Philip Wadler who contributed immensely to the overall design of generics in the Java programming language.

Much later, we added wildcards to the type system. Wildcards grew out of a idea in a the Unifying Genericity by Mads Torgersen and Kresten Thorup. This was then fleshed out by Atsushi Igrarashi and Mirko Viroli. Ultimately, a team at Aarhus University and the Alexandra Institute, led by Erik Ernst and Mads Torgersen, implemented wildcards as part of a collaborative research project with Sun.

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Last updated September 24th, 2011

Generic