Re Java generics: Nope. They came out of UPenn's featherweight java work, see here: http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~bcpierce/papers/fj-toplas.pdf http://www.cis.upen

Re Java generics: Nope. They came out of UPenn's featherweight java work, see here: http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~bcpierce/papers/fj-toplas.pdf http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~bcpierce/papers/fj-toplas.pdf Pierce literally wrote the book on type theory. Swift is written by type theorists; large chunks of the people who worked on it has a PhD (or part of one) in PL theory.