In the paper “An Extended Comparative Study of Language Support for Generic Programming” by Garcia et al. an interesting comparison of programming languages features for generic programming is given:
with the brief explanation of terminology:
Can anyone test Scala support for generic programming inside this framework? I.e. add a column in the first table with explanations if possible.
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As mentioned in one of the comments from the OP, this is the table that explains how Scala compares for generic programming support. Link to source pdf
Later on, the following summary is provided:
Scala
Using the CONCEPT pattern we can model multi-type concepts, multiple constraints and support retroactive modeling. Furthermore, Scala’s support for implicits means that the drawbacks of the Java and C# solutions in terms of the additional overhead, do not apply to Scala. Thus, Scala scores well in both the implicit argument deduction and the retroactive modeling criteria. Section 6 shows that associated types are supported in Scala through type members and dependent method types, and type members can also be used as type aliases.
As shown in Section 3, Scala supports lexically scoped models. Furthermore type-checking is fully modular. Prioritized overlapping implicits provide some support for concept-based overloading as illustrated by the zipWithN example in Section 6.5. However, overlapping models have to be structured using a subtyping hierarchy, which may not always be desirable. Thus, the score for this feature is only sufficient. Finally, Scala has full support for first-class functions and it also supports equality constraints.
In summary Scala turns out to be a language with excellent support for generic programming features, managing to fare at the same level, or even slightly better, than G (which was specially designed as a language for generic programming in the large) or Haskell (which has been recognized has having very good support for generic programming).
And then in the summary:
Type members and dependent method types add extra power to the language and a combination of the two mechanisms allows associated types to be expressed. In combination with implicits, type members and dependent method types make Scala an language ready for generic programming in the large