Chapter 5. Generic Programming Made Easy

One of the benefits of generic programming is that it enables the implementation of type-independent code. A single function can be written once to support multiple types, rather than once for each supported type. Several languages allow for generic programming to one degree or another. Some implementations are easy to use, but not very powerful; others are powerful, but difficult to learn. Throughout my time in the D community, I have seen numerous remarks in the newsgroups, reddit threads, and elsewhere, praising the simplicity and power of D templates. Combined with the compile-time features covered in the previous chapter, even novice programmers can quickly learn to do things that might seem daunting in other languages.

I have to work from the assumption that many readers will not be as familiar with generic programming as others. With that in mind, we're going to start with a look at the very basics of using templates in D and...