Evolution of Generic Programming in OOPLs

Abstract

Generic Programming enables program constructs to be reused in a variety of situations. In programming languages, idea of generic programming is being opted through a variety of generic mechanisms. Generic mechanisms are either directly applied to pre-existing language constructs or it provides its own components for generic implementation. In this paper, we present such generic mechanisms in an organized way such that it appears as "one mechanism intensify other". Our aim is to exhibit generic evolution among mainstream object oriented programming languages (OOPLs). Hence, we analyze such approaches for better expressiveness and type-safety of generic programming as they evolved in OOPLs. This brief review article will help developers and researchers to precisely understand the generic mechanism in mainstream OOPLs.