Generic-type operations must by provided by the run-time. Why this is a weakness of Go?

Question

So, reading golang blog on slices there is a snippet by Rob Pike

A weakness of Go is that any generic-type operations must be provided by the run-time.

which I don't quite understand.

Can one rephrase same sentence?

Considering the context before and after this sentence I assume we can not program generic-type methods (consuming, let's say, slices of byte/int/float etc), but rather should use built-ins.

So, the quirkiest part for me is provided by the run-time, - is that equals to provided by the language?

score 5 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 26 '17 at 02:21

5

So, the quirkiest part for me is "provided by the run-time," - is that equals to "provided by the language"?

Yes. What it means is that Go has a handful of built-in generic types, such as arrays/slices, channels, and maps, that can have any type put into them, but that's all you get; there's no support for defining your own custom generic types.

answered Apr 26 '17 at 02:21

Mason Wheeler

82,789

However, one could use the interface{} (empty interface) type as the most general type. – Basile Starynkevitch Apr 26 '17 at 04:29
2

@BasileStarynkevitch That's not a generic type, that's a Top type (supertype of all other types). "Generic types" usually means "parametric polymorphism", which is far more useful. – Jack Apr 26 '17 at 07:01
Yes, but I did not wrote: "generic type", so I knew that. – Basile Starynkevitch Apr 26 '17 at 07:04

Generic-type operations must by provided by the run-time. Why this is a weakness of Go?

1 Answers1