abstract references to generic interfaces

Question

Does anyone else feel that it might be useful if the runtime allowed references to members of a generic interface that were not specific to the generic type? I know the usual "workaround" is to create a non-generic interface as the base for the generic interface, but is there a valid reason against that base interface basically being automatic?

For example, given the following interface:

public interface IProcessor<T> 
{
    string Name { get; }
    void Process(T item);
}

I think it would be convenient to automatically allow something like this:

public void LogProcessor(IProcessor<> item)
{
        Trace.WriteLine(item.Name);
}

I'm curious to hear arguments against this (other than "stop being so lazy and just write the base interface").

Answer 1

You can just use a generic method:

public void LogProcessor<T>(IProcessor<T> item)
{
    Trace.WriteLine(item.Name);
}