Let's do it with generics

Igors Nemenonoks

The speech of Igors is a presentation on the topic of generics programming, primarily focusing on its implementation in Swift, a programming language used for iOS and macOS development. The speaker begins by introducing generics programming, its history dating back to the 1970s, and its adoption in various programming languages such as C++, Pascal, and Java before becoming available in Swift. Generics are highlighted as a means to write flexible and reusable code that can work with any type, thus avoiding duplication and expressing intent clearly and abstractly.

Throughout the presentation, the speaker demonstrates the concept of generics through examples, starting with simple functions for swapping variables of different types and progressing to more complex scenarios like creating a generic stack. He emphasizes the importance of generics in Swift, particularly in collections like arrays and dictionaries, where any type can be used.

The speaker then introduces the concept of generic types, explaining how custom classes, structs, and enumerations can be made generic to work with various types. He delves into constraints and associated types, showing how to enforce certain requirements on generic types.

A practical example is provided to showcase the benefits of using generics in a real-world scenario: creating a configurable table view with different types of cells. Igors demonstrates how generics can make the code more elegant, reusable, and maintainable compared to traditional approaches involving multiple if-else conditions.

The presentation concludes with a recommendation to explore further resources on generics, including a link to a GitHub page discussing future features and developments in generics programming. Finally, the speaker invites questions and offers to share the code presented on GitHub for further reference.

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