> Generics are convenient but they come at a cost in complexity in the type syst... | Hacker News

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potamic 65 days ago | parent | context | favorite | on: Go 1.27

> Generics are convenient but they come at a cost in complexity in the type system and run-time.

By run-time they mean compile-time? There shouldn't be a run-time penalty right?

Also, is there some measure of the additional compilation cost now that generics has been added?

neild 65 days ago [–]

The “runtime” as in the compiler runtime which provides the scheduler, garbage collector, etc.

dolmen 65 days ago | [–]

The runtime also includes reflection, so preserving compatibility of the type system while adding generics was definitely a challenge, so adding generics to Go was definitely a great achievement.

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