When would you not use Generic Collections?

Question

The advantage of using generics is that it increases the type safety - you can only put in the correct type of thing, and you get out the correct type without requiring a ca

Answer 1

Generics are almost always the right thing to use. Note that languages like Haskell and ML essentially only allow that model: there is no default "object" or "void*" in those languages at all.

The only reasons I might not use generics are:

1. When the appropriate type is simply not known at compile time. Things like deserializing objects, or instantiating objects through reflection.

2. When the users that will be using my code aren't familiar with them (yet). Not all engineers are comfortable using them, especially in some more advanced patterns like the CRTP.