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Comment by nteon | Hacker News Reader

C doesn't have generics, and is certainly a systems language. I don't think you have a strong point here. Systems != embedded.

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> C doesn't have generics, and is certainly a systems language.

C doesn't have a mandatory runtime, ubiquitous dynamic dispatch or a GC, and it lets developers decide whether to stack or heap allocate.

cmrdporcupine also isn't talking about generics, they're replying to the assertion that

> Go is not -- from a practical point of view -- a static language

C programmers use void pointers for generics. :)

And so, basically, does Go.

Except there is a fairly large difference with interface{}, in that it is typed. interface{} is more like Object in java than void* from C. If you incorrectly cast an interface{} to a type it's not, it will be a runtime error.

Details: http://research.swtch.com/interfaces

> If you incorrectly cast an interface{} to a type it's not, it will be a runtime error.

Sidenote, you may or may not have meant a panic - so i just want to clarify.

Casting an interface to a type incorrectly will not cause a panic/crash, assuming you use the proper syntax.

    // Will panic
    foo := myInterface.(BadType)
    // Will not panic
    foo, ok := myInterface.(BadType)

In the latter, you simply check if `ok` is true or not. If not, the interface value does not implement the given type/interface.

Go doesn't have casts. It has conversions and type assertions. This is a type assertion.

C has generics as of C11 via '_Generic'. Google can tell you more, and here's a blogpost with examples: http://abissell.com/2014/01/16/c11s-_generic-keyword-macro-a...

Well, yes, kind of. It's not something you would really use a lot. It doesn't help you with generic types, but only with generic functions. Since it only makes sense when coupled with macros, it really only helps with functions that are written out but accessible by the same name. For example, selecting sinf() or sin(), or writing a max() function.

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