Generic primitives, generic records.

[raistware]

Well, Lazarus is the tool, but FPC is the compiler. The language is featured by the compiler . If you want to have that feature, it is better that you ask for it on correct place.


@eny: Have you tried any time to read C++ code full of templates? It is big shit that nobody can undertand without weeks of study even for small projects with 10-20 files! I know because I have ported some C++ code to pascal, and even currently I am porting a C++ project to pascal... I only can say that templates are THE HELL!

[eny]

@eny: Have you tried any time to read C++ code full of templates?

No, I prefer to work with FPC/Lazarus (although I have done my share of C++ programming...).

I only can say that templates are THE HELL!

I don't necessarily disagree with you. However generics are not C++ templates.
Unfortunately the reference guide adds to the confusion by saying in Chapter 8: "As of version 2.2, Free Pascal also officially has support for templates or Generics."
As I mentioned before, generics are an elegant way to create a group of typesafe 'child' classes, based on a generic (no pun intended) class implementation.

Generics have had a rough history though: they worked OK with lazarus 0.9.26, didn't work at all with Lazarus 0.9.27 and have been working OK since Lazarus 0.9.28. I don't know if it was a FPC problem, or Lazarus problem, but with the latest builds they have been working as expected.

And as a final note: they should be used where appropriate 
(which is something that applies to all language constructs...)