From Mathematics to Generic Programming

14. Conclusions

The strongest arguments prove nothing so long asthe conclusions are not verified by experience. Roger Bacon, Opus Tertium

We started this book by characterizing generic programming as an attitude toward programming that focuses on abstracting algorithms to their most general setting without losing efficiency. Throughout the book, we’ve seen examples of this abstraction process in mathematics and in programming. We saw how mathematicians’ attempts to find the most general setting for Euclid’s GCD algorithm led to the development of abstract algebra, an entire area of mathematics devoted to abstract structures, which itself provided the basis for generic programming. We also saw how to use those same principles of abstraction to ...