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The new versions of .NET (2.0) and Java (1.5) provide a new construct called Generics. I have been testing both and here is some code that I wrote to test and compare.

.NET:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;
 
class linkedListNode
{
  private linkedListNode next = null;
  private NodeType value;
 
  public linkedListNode(NodeType value)
  {
    this.value = value;
  }
 
  public void link(linkedListNode element)
  {
    if (next != null)
    {
      next.link(element);
    }
    else
    {
      next = element;
    }
  }
 
  public void print()
  {
    if (value != null)
    {
      System.Console.WriteLine(value.ToString());
    }
    else
    {
      System.Console.WriteLine("Empty node.");
    }
 
    if (next == null)
    {
      System.Console.WriteLine("Last node.");
    }
    else
    {
      next.print();
    }
  }
}
 
class linkedList
{
  private linkedListNode root = null;
 
  public void add(NodeType element)
  {
    linkedListNode node = new linkedListNode(element);
 
    if (root != null)
    {
      root.link(node);
    }
    else
    {
      root = node;
    }
  }
 
  public void print()
  {
    System.Console.WriteLine("The list is a list of " + root.GetType().ToString());
    root.print();
  }  
}
 
class thingy
{
  private String text;
 
  public thingy(String text)
  {
    this.text = text;
  }
 
  public override String ToString()
  {
    return text;
  }
}
 
public class test
{
  public static void Main()
  {
    linkedList list = new linkedList();
    thingy t;
    t = new thingy("t1");
    list.add(t);
    t = new thingy("t2");
    list.add(t);
    list.print();
    System.Console.ReadLine();
  }
}

Java:

class linkedListNode<NodeType>
{
    private linkedListNode next = null;
    private NodeType value;
 
    public linkedListNode(NodeType value)
    {
        this.value = value;
    }
 
    public void link(linkedListNode<NodeType> element)
    {
        if(next != null)
        {
            next.link(element);
        }
        else
        {
            next = element;
        }
    }
 
    public void print()
    {
        if(value != null)
        {
            System.out.println(value.toString());
        }
        else
        {
            System.out.println("Empty node.");
        }
 
        if(next == null)
        {
            System.out.println("Last node."); 
        }
        else
        {
            next.print();
        }
    }
}
 
class linkedList<NodeType>
{
    private linkedListNode root = null;
 
    public void add(NodeType element)
    {
        linkedListNode<NodeType> node = new linkedListNode<NodeType>(element);
        if(root != null)
        {
            root.link(node);
        }
        else
        {
            root = node;
        }
    }
 
    public void print()
    {
        System.out.println("The list is a list of " + root.getClass().getName());
        root.print();
    }
}
 
class thingy
{
    private String text;
 
    public thingy(String text)
    {
        this.text = text;
    }
 
    public String toString()
    {
        return text;
    }
}
 
public class test
{
    public static void main(String[] args)
    {
        linkedList<thingy> list = new linkedList<thingy>();
        thingy t;
        t = new thingy("t1");
        list.add(t);
        t = new thingy("t2");
        list.add(t);
        list.print();
    }
}

Some interesting points:

• C# syntax almost equal to Java syntax
• The output is different; Java loses type information
• The lost type information is also visible when compiling.