[microtonal]

At least it is better than Java's instanceof + cast.

Except that in a language with generics you have to cast far less, so it is no surprise that Java is less optimized for type casting.

(The primary exception being the equals(Object) method, which most classes should have.)

[thomasahle]

I'm not sure I see how generics help at this particular problem. Functional languages have advanced type systems, but still use pattern matching all the time.