Generics in the .NET Compact FrameworkÂ
The .NET Compact Framework provides core language feature compatibility for C# and Visual Basic in the implementation of generics and generic collections.
The following differences apply between generics in the .NET Compact Framework and in the full .NET Framework:
Expansive generic recursion through fields is not supported. For example, the following C# field declaration is not supported:
class MyData<T> { MyData<MyData<T>> field; }
Other kinds of generic recursion are supported, such as the following C# class declarations:
class C : IComparable<C> class C<T> : IComparable<C<T>>
The .NET Compact Framework does not validate constraints for normal execution in the absence of a verifier. Reflection will still verify the constraints when binding to generic parameters.
The number of generic parameters you can use is limited to eight.
The .NET Compact Framework provides limited reflection functionality for generic types and methods, sufficient for supporting C# and Visual Basic runtime and class library dependencies.