From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.4.4 (2020-01-24) on polar.synack.me X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00 autolearn=ham autolearn_force=no version=3.4.4 X-Google-Thread: 103376,3413256b2f4bedfc X-Google-Attributes: gid103376,public X-Google-Language: ENGLISH,ASCII-7-bit Path: g2news1.google.com!news3.google.com!news.glorb.com!border1.nntp.dca.giganews.com!newscon06.news.prodigy.com!prodigy.net!newsmst01b.news.prodigy.com!prodigy.com!postmaster.news.prodigy.com!newssvr23.news.prodigy.net.POSTED!4988f22a!not-for-mail From: Newsgroups: comp.lang.ada References: <43045094_1@glkas0286.greenlnk.net> Subject: Re: What was the first programming language to use 'generics'?... X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2800.1437 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2800.1441 Message-ID: NNTP-Posting-Host: 69.237.166.136 X-Complaints-To: abuse@prodigy.net X-Trace: newssvr23.news.prodigy.net 1124780624 ST000 69.237.166.136 (Tue, 23 Aug 2005 03:03:44 EDT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 23 Aug 2005 03:03:44 EDT Organization: SBC http://yahoo.sbc.com X-UserInfo1: Q[OQB\CEBZUWSSD[N[O@_WH@YR_B@EXLLBWLOOAFWIWTEPIB_NVUAH_[BL[\IRKIANGGJBFNJF_DOLSCENSY^U@FRFUEXR@KFXYDBPWBCDQJA@X_DCBHXR[C@\EOKCJLED_SZ@RMWYXYWE_P@\\GOIW^@SYFFSWHFIXMADO@^[ADPRPETLBJ]RDGENSKQQZN Date: Tue, 23 Aug 2005 07:03:44 GMT Xref: g2news1.google.com comp.lang.ada:4257 Date: 2005-08-23T07:03:44+00:00 List-Id: "Dennis Lee Bieber" wrote in message news:odeig19vmplnbt67s3s148eb4mqrk9vujd@4ax.com... > On Sun, 21 Aug 2005 17:33:19 GMT, declaimed the > following in comp.lang.ada: > > > > "seven dwarfs." COBOL even has a SORT verb as part of the language > > that one could think of as a generic capability. > > > > So, the first high-order language to have a generic capability might well > > be COBOL. > > > This could be tricky... I think some implementations of the SORT > verb assumed an external sort program existed to do the actual sorting > after the parameters were translated. > Exactly so. The algorithms of the SORT verb were in a separate facility. This facility (program) was a generic program. One simply stated the description of the data and let the behavior of the sort work on that data. This is exactly what most generic units do in Ada. Richard Riehle