Discussion on: Explain Generics Like I'm Five

In strictly typed languages, Generics are a way to make an abstraction like a List or Map where the type isn't directly tied to the implementation. A Set for example, has standard operations that don't change whether you have a Set of cars or DOM Elements.

So you might set it up something like this.

class Set<E> {
}

public E get(int index) {
    return this._innerArray[index];
}

Set<Car> mySet = new Set<>();