[tomp]

I think it should be clear to every programmer that there are different trade-offs to be made when designing systems, including the trade-off between generic-code&fast-development&slow-speed and specific-code&slow-development&fast-speed. People that don't get that shouldn't be programmers, and people that get it should have the freedom to make their own trade-offs.

In other words, the only "cost" of generics, thus, is the social cost (there is no purely technical cost). Here, it boils down to the philosophical/political freedom-vs-safety question, and I strongly incline towards freedom. Go does not. Go's position is, if not wrong, at least loosing, since programmers demonstrably are using work-arounds (`interface {}`) when they need generics.

[burntsushi]

> Go's position is, if not wrong, at least loosing, since programmers demonstrably are using work-arounds (`interface {}`) when they need generics.

I just got through telling you that this type of use is actively discouraged, so no, people aren't using it as often as you might think.

If you want generics, you've got to pay for it. The implementation you've suggested requires a runtime performance penalty to use generics. Therefore, you have not demonstrated that generics are free.