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Jacques Carette

27 Apr 2010 27 Apr '10

4:23 p.m.

I have heard generic programming described tongue-in-cheek as "the kind of polymorphism that a language does not (yet) have". I find this description rather apt, and it matches fairly what I see called 'generic' in various communities. But who said this, where and when? Jacques

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Sterling Clover

27 Apr 27 Apr

9:21 p.m.

I first encountered this quip on ltu: http://lambda-the-ultimate.org/node/1926#comment-23411 However, that comment doesn't give a source either. Cheers, Sterl. On Tue, Apr 27, 2010 at 4:23 PM, Jacques Carette wrote:

...

I have heard generic programming described tongue-in-cheek as "the kind of polymorphism that a language does not (yet) have". I find this description rather apt, and it matches fairly what I see called 'generic' in various communities. But who said this, where and when?

Jacques _______________________________________________ Haskell-Cafe mailing list Haskell-Cafe@haskell.org http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/haskell-cafe

Jacques Carette

10:05 p.m.

Sterling Clover wrote:

...

I first encountered this quip on ltu: http://lambda-the-ultimate.org/node/1926#comment-23411

However, that comment doesn't give a source either.

Probably where I remembered it from too. I'll continue searching - it's a good quote! Jacques

Bradford Larsen

9:32 p.m.

On Tue, Apr 27, 2010 at 4:23 PM, Jacques Carette wrote:

...

I have heard generic programming described tongue-in-cheek as "the kind of polymorphism that a language does not (yet) have". I find this description rather apt, and it matches fairly what I see called 'generic' in various communities. But who said this, where and when?

Jacques _______________________________________________ Haskell-Cafe mailing list Haskell-Cafe@haskell.org http://www.haskell.org/mailman/listinfo/haskell-cafe

I don't have the book handy (it was from the library), but I seem to remember reading something along those lines in ``Datatype-Generic Programming: International Spring School, SSDGP 2006, Nottingham, UK, April 24-27, 2006, Revised Lectures'', edited by Backhouse, Gibbons, Hinze, and Jeuring. There's a lead for you, at least! Regards, Brad

Jacques Carette

10:03 p.m.

...

On Tue, Apr 27, 2010 at 4:23 PM, Jacques Carette wrote:

...
I have heard generic programming described tongue-in-cheek as "the kind of polymorphism that a language does not (yet) have". I find this description rather apt, and it matches fairly what I see called 'generic' in various communities. But who said this, where and when?

I seem to remember reading something along those lines in ``Datatype-Generic Programming: International Spring School, SSDGP 2006, Nottingham, UK, April 24-27, 2006, Revised Lectures'', edited by Backhouse, Gibbons, Hinze, and Jeuring. I've got that book in my office - I'll check tomorrow. I read the

Bradford Larsen wrote: preface before I posted on -cafe, and it wasnt' there. I'll read further in, see if I can spot it. Jacques

Jacques Carette

28 Apr 28 Apr

10:47 a.m.

Bradford Larsen wrote:

...

I don't have the book handy (it was from the library), but I seem to remember reading something along those lines in ``Datatype-Generic Programming: International Spring School, SSDGP 2006, Nottingham, UK, April 24-27, 2006, Revised Lectures'', edited by Backhouse, Gibbons, Hinze, and Jeuring.

The spirit is there in quotes like "The term ‘generic programming’ means different things to different people, because they have different ideas about how to achieve the common goal of combining flexibility and safety. To some people, it means parametric polymorphism; to others, it means libraries of algorithms and data structures; to another group, it means reflection and meta-programming; to us, it means polytypism, that is, type-safe parametrization by a datatype " and "Moreover, a parametrization is usually only called ‘generic’ programming if it is of a ‘non-traditional’ kind; by definition, traditional kinds of parametrization give rise only to traditional programming, not generic programming. Therefore, ‘genericity’ is in the eye of the beholder, with beholders from different programming traditions having different interpretations of the term." But nothing 'snappy'. Ah well. Jacques

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Bradford Larsen
Jacques Carette
Sterling Clover