Wrox - Professional dot.NET 2.0 Generics

Introduction

Although generics are new to .NET platform, the concepts that motivated their introduction have been around for years. However, while their value was often acknowledged, they were frequently stereotyped as being highly complex, unwieldy, and unapproachable. This reputation always seemed to obscure their value and limit their ability to capture the mindshare of the broader population of developers. The real truth here, though, is that generics simply couldn’t become truly mainstream without first having more languages and environments add support for generics. And, prior to version 2.0 of the .NET Framework, Visual Basic, C# and J#, developers were unable to use any generic constructs. As a result, many of these developers remained unaware of the power and value of generics. You can’t miss something if you’ve never had it.

Now, with .NET Framework adding full support for generics, this dynamic will certainly change. And, as generics begin to move out of the shadows and into the limelight, you’re going to want to be in a position to maximize their value in your own solutions. To get to that point, though, you’ll need to understand all the nuances associated with creating and consuming generics, how they reach their way into and influence the fabric of the .NET Framework. The overriding goal of this book, then, is to provide a soup-to-nuts blend of basic syntax, key concepts, and examples of generic libraries that will provide you with a foundation that will help you determine how and when you might want to start leveraging generics. And, as you get more familiar with generics and you start understanding some of their obvious—and not so obvious—implications, it’s likely you’ll also find yourself leveraging generics much more heavily than you may have ever expected.