Genericity is *not* templates

[E. Robert Tisdale]

According to the C++ FAQ Lite:

http://www.parashift.com/

[34.11] What is "genericity "?

Yet another way to say, "class templates."

Not to be confused with "generality "
(which just means avoiding solutions which are overly specific),
"genericity " means class templates.

This is *not* correct.
Class templates are *not* generally generic.
Usually, class templates are only be used to generate template classes
for a restricted set of types.
Only class templates which are designed to generate template classes
for *all* types are truly generic.
The standard vector class template, for example, is generic but
the standard valarry class template is *not* generic
because it only makes sense for numeric types.

[Buster]

E. Robert Tisdale wrote:

E. Robert Tisdale wrote:
[snip]

The standard vector class template, for example, is generic but
the standard valarry class template is *not* generic
because it only makes sense for numeric types.

[snip]
ADJECTIVE:1. Relating to or descriptive of an entire group or class;
general. See synonyms at general.

[snip]

Who says the numeric types don't comprise an "entire group or class"?

From the Oxford Concise English Dictionary, 9th edition, "*generic*
[...] 2 /Biol./ Characteristic of or belonging to a genus." In this
other technical sense, then, genericity is quite a limited thing: it
doesn't refer to entire families, orders, classes, phyla or kingdoms.

--
Regards,
Buster.

[tom_usenet]

On Tue, 06 Apr 2004 11:27:10 -0700, "E. Robert Tisdale"
<E.************ **@jpl.nasa.gov > wrote:

The standard vector class template, for example, is generic but
the standard valarry class template is *not* generic
because it only makes sense for numeric types.

According to your definition below, that isn't a problem.
ADJECTIVE:1. Relating to or descriptive of an entire group or class;
general. See synonyms at general.

valarray relates to the entire group/class of numeric types. What is
non-generic about that?

Tom
--
C++ FAQ: http://www.parashift.com/c++-faq-lite/
C FAQ: http://www.eskimo.com/~scs/C-faq/top.html

[tom_usenet]

On Tue, 06 Apr 2004 11:27:10 -0700, "E. Robert Tisdale"
<E.************ **@jpl.nasa.gov > wrote:

The standard vector class template, for example, is generic but
the standard valarry class template is *not* generic
because it only makes sense for numeric types.

According to your definition below, that isn't a problem.
ADJECTIVE:1. Relating to or descriptive of an entire group or class;
general. See synonyms at general.

valarray relates to the entire group/class of numeric types. What is
non-generic about that?

Tom
--
C++ FAQ: http://www.parashift.com/c++-faq-lite/
C FAQ: http://www.eskimo.com/~scs/C-faq/top.html