HOME





Generics In Java
Generics are a facility of generic programming that were added to the Java programming language in 2004 within version J2SE 5.0. They were designed to extend Java's type system to allow "a type or method to operate on objects of various types while providing compile-time type safety". The aspect '' compile-time type safety'' required that parametrically polymorphic functions are not implemented in the Java virtual machine, since type safety is impossible in this case. The Java collections framework supports generics to specify the type of objects stored in a collection instance. In 1998, Gilad Bracha, Martin Odersky, David Stoutamire and Philip Wadler created Generic Java, an extension to the Java language to support generic types. Generic Java was incorporated in Java with the addition of wildcards. Hierarchy and classification According to ''Java Language Specification'': *A type variable is an unqualified identifier. Type variables are introduced by generic class declarati ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Generic Programming
Generic programming is a style of computer programming in which algorithms are written in terms of data types ''to-be-specified-later'' that are then ''instantiated'' when needed for specific types provided as parameters. This approach, pioneered in the programming language ML in 1973, permits writing common functions or data types that differ only in the set of types on which they operate when used, thus reducing duplicate code. Generic programming was introduced to the mainstream with Ada in 1977. With templates in C++, generic programming became part of the repertoire of professional library design. The techniques were further improved and ''parameterized types'' were introduced in the influential 1994 book '' Design Patterns''. New techniques were introduced by Andrei Alexandrescu in his 2001 book '' Modern C++ Design: Generic Programming and Design Patterns Applied''. Subsequently, D implemented the same ideas. Such software entities are known as ''generics'' in ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Primitive Type
In computer science, primitive data types are a set of basic data types from which all other data types are constructed. Specifically it often refers to the limited set of data representations in use by a particular processor, which all compiled programs must use. Most processors support a similar set of primitive data types, although the specific representations vary. More generally, ''primitive data types'' may refer to the standard data types built into a programming language (built-in types). Data types which are not primitive are referred to as ''derived'' or ''composite''. Primitive types are almost always value types, but composite types may also be value types. Common primitive data types The most common primitive types are those used and supported by computer hardware, such as integers of various sizes, floating-point numbers, and Boolean logical values. Operations on such types are usually quite efficient. Primitive data types which are native to the processor have a ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Variance (computer Science)
Many programming language type systems support subtyping. For instance, if the type is a subtype of , then an expression of type should be substitutable wherever an expression of type is used. Variance is the category of possible relationships between more complex types and their components' subtypes. A language's chosen variance determines the relationship between, for example, a list of s and a list of s, or a function returning and a function returning . Depending on the variance of the type constructor, the subtyping relation of the simple types may be either preserved, reversed, or ignored for the respective complex types. In the OCaml programming language, for example, "list of Cat" is a subtype of "list of Animal" because the list type constructor is covariant. This means that the subtyping relation of the simple types is preserved for the complex types. On the other hand, "function from Animal to String" is a subtype of "function from Cat to String" because the ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Backward Compatibility
In telecommunications and computing, backward compatibility (or backwards compatibility) is a property of an operating system, software, real-world product, or technology that allows for interoperability with an older legacy system, or with Input/output, input designed for such a system. Modifying a system in a way that does not allow backward compatibility is sometimes called "wikt:breaking change, breaking" backward compatibility. Such breaking usually incurs various types of costs, such as Switching barriers, switching cost. A complementary concept is ''forward compatibility''; a design that is forward-compatible usually has a Technology roadmap, roadmap for compatibility with future standards and products. Usage In hardware A simple example of both backward and forward compatibility is the introduction of FM broadcasting, FM radio in stereophonic sound, stereo. FM radio was initially monaural, mono, with only one audio channel represented by one signal (electrical engineerin ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Static Variable
In computer programming, a static variable is a variable that has been allocated "statically", meaning that its lifetime (or "extent") is the entire run of the program. This is in contrast to shorter-lived automatic variables, whose storage is stack allocated and deallocated on the call stack; and in contrast to dynamically allocated objects, whose storage is allocated and deallocated in heap memory. Variable lifetime is contrasted with scope (where a variable can be used): "global" and "local" refer to scope, not lifetime, but scope often implies lifetime. In many languages, global variables are always static, but in some languages they are dynamic, while local variables are generally automatic, but may be static. In general, is the allocation of memory at compile time, before the associated program is executed, unlike dynamic memory allocation or automatic memory allocation where memory is allocated as required at run time. History Static variables date at least ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

C++ Templates
C, or c, is the third letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''cee'' (pronounced ), plural ''cees''. History "C" comes from the same letter as "G". The Semites named it gimel. The sign is possibly adapted from an Egyptian hieroglyph for a staff sling, which may have been the meaning of the name ''gimel''. Another possibility is that it depicted a camel, the Semitic name for which was ''gamal''. Barry B. Powell, a specialist in the history of writing, states "It is hard to imagine how gimel = "camel" can be derived from the picture of a camel (it may show his hump, or his head and neck!)". In the Etruscan language, plosive consonants had no contrastive voicing, so the Greek ' Γ' (Gamma) was adopted into the Etruscan alphabet to represent . Already in the Western Greek alphabet, Gamma first took a '' form in Early Etruscan, then '' in Classical E ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  




Type Erasure
In programming languages, type erasure is the load-time process by which explicit type annotations are removed from a program, before it is executed at run-time. Operational semantics not requiring programs to be accompanied by types are named ''type-erasure semantics'', in contrast with ''type-passing semantics''. Type-erasure semantics is an abstraction principle, ensuring that the run-time execution of a program doesn't depend on type information. In the context of generic programming, the opposite of type erasure is named reification. Type inference The reverse operation is named type inference. Though type erasure can be an easy way to define typing over implicitly typed languages (an implicitly typed term is well-typed if and only if it is the erasure of a well-typed explicitly typed lambda term), it doesn't provide Rule of inference Rules of inference are ways of deriving conclusions from premises. They are integral parts of formal logic, serving as norms of ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Covariance And Contravariance (computer Science)
Many programming language type systems support subtyping. For instance, if the type (computer science), type is a subtype of , then an expression (computer science), expression of type Liskov_substitution_principle, should be substitutable wherever an expression of type is used. Variance is the category of possible relationships between more composite type, complex types and their components' subtypes. A language's chosen variance determines the relationship between, for example, a list (programming), list of s and a list of s, or a Function (computer science), function return value, returning and a function returning . Depending on the variance of the type constructor, the subtyping relation of the simple types may be either preserved, reversed, or ignored for the respective complex types. In the OCaml programming language, for example, "list of Cat" is a subtype of "list of Animal" because the list type constructor is covariant. This means that the subtyping relation of the ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Joshua Bloch
Joshua J. Bloch (born August 28, 1961) is an American software engineer and a technology author. He led the design and implementation of numerous Java platform features, including the Java Collections Framework, the package, and the mechanism."About the Author"
''Effective Java Programming Language Guide''
He is the author of the programming guide ''Effective Java'' (2001), which won the 2001 Jolt Award, and is a co-author of two other Java books, ''Java Puzzlers'' (2005) and ''Java Concurrency In Practice'' (2006). Bloch holds a B.S. in

Bounded Quantification
In type theory, bounded quantification (also bounded polymorphism or constrained genericity) refers to universal or existential quantifiers which are restricted ("bounded") to range only over the subtypes of a particular type. Bounded quantification is an interaction of parametric polymorphism with subtyping. Bounded quantification has traditionally been studied in the functional setting of System F<:, but is available in modern s supporting ( generics) such as

Null Pointer
In computing, a null pointer (sometimes shortened to nullptr or null) or null reference is a value saved for indicating that the Pointer (computer programming), pointer or reference (computer science), reference does not refer to a valid Object (computer science), object. Programs routinely use null pointers to represent conditions such as the end of a List (computing), list of unknown length or the failure to perform some action; this use of null pointers can be compared to nullable types and to the ''Nothing'' value in an option type. A null pointer should not be confused with an uninitialized variable, uninitialized pointer: a null pointer is guaranteed to compare unequal to any pointer that points to a valid object. However, in general, most languages do not offer such guarantee for uninitialized pointers. It might compare equal to other, valid pointers; or it might compare equal to null pointers. It might do both at different times; or the comparison might be undefined behavio ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  




Bounded Quantification
In type theory, bounded quantification (also bounded polymorphism or constrained genericity) refers to universal or existential quantifiers which are restricted ("bounded") to range only over the subtypes of a particular type. Bounded quantification is an interaction of parametric polymorphism with subtyping. Bounded quantification has traditionally been studied in the functional setting of System F<:, but is available in modern s supporting ( generics) such as