GenericGuidelines

Generic Guidelines

This is a discussion page for developing ideas around the use of generics in designs and the issues that arise. Please drop comments and submit feedback to this page as it is a recent addition to the wiki...

--Linda 20:58, 3 October 2010 (UTC)

Ideas for contributions to this page:

• Links to examples of good/poor use of generics.
• Comments on what makes these examples good/poor including design maxims and principles adhered to/violated.

...

Here is an interesting article that describes how the use of generics should be considered an Anti pattern in OO design. The author talks about how the use of generics in modern OO programming languages introduce encapsulation leaks and increases coupling. He also mentions the complexities surrounding overriding a super classes methods that implement a generic in the method signature. What do we think of this article? Do we think the authors arguments are valid? Does the flexibility of generics add more to OO programming that detract from it?