You're right, C++ generic implementation is different than Java for example. That's why it was hard for me to nail the features the generic should have in general... C++ is more like duck typing with precompiled checking i.e. If you have no traits you still get integers summed for example because the generated code from the headers is compilable. On Java it's different: all the generics have types erased and there is typecasting later, unless they are inherited by other types