1. Introduction to Generic Programming in C++
E81 CSE 532S: Advanced Multi-Paradigm Software Development
Introduction to Generic Programming in C++
Chris Gill
Department of Computer Science
Washington University, St. Louis
Title slide

2. Each Paradigm Has a Particular View
“Computer programming is largely a matter of algorithms and data structures.”
Austern pp. 3 (Generic Programming Paradigm)
Object-based might say “methods and data”
OO might say “inheritance and polymorphism”
Patterns might say “design forces and contexts”
And so forth …

3. What is the STL? An abstract library of concepts
A formal hierarchy of software requirements
A library of interchangeable modules
Algorithms
Containers
Iterators
Function objects, and much more
A flexible and efficient software framework
An extensible platform for software development

4. What is Generic Programming?
An abstraction technique for algorithms
Argument types are as general as possible
Separates algorithm steps & argument properties
What GoF design pattern does this resemble?
Type requirements can be specified, systematized
Can cluster requirements into abstractions
Termed “concepts”
Concepts can refine other concepts
Captures relationships between concepts
Analogy to inheritance hierarchies
A type that meets a concept’s requirements
Is a “model” of the concept
Can be plugged in to meet that set of requirements

5. Generic Algorithm Example
STL linear search (based on Austern pp. 13):
template <typename Iterator, typename T>
Iterator find2 (Iterator first, Iterator last,
const T & value) {
while (first != last && *first != value) {
++first; }
return first;
A generic algorithm
Searches any one-dimensional sequence of elements, for any type on which the operators work