🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <9510272025.AA09665@absoft.absoft.com>,
"Michael Rice" <mpr@absoft.com> wrote:

|> I have a question concerning class template instantitation, as described
|> in section 14.3.2 on the Sep 1995 WP.  
[snip]
|> The section goes on the give examples of a few cases that do require
|> instantiation and a few that do not require instantiation.  It seems
|> to me, that it should state EXACTLY when they are required and it 
|> doesn't seem to in this section.  Does it anywhere?  If it is not
|> stated implementations could decide anything in a requirement. Couldn't
|> they?

Well, the intent of the committee regarding template classes is that they
should be instantiated precisely when the class types are required to be
complete or when certain ptr to class casts are used.

However, the WP doesn't yet clearly explain when function templates are
required to be instantiated, and the example you gave is certainly a
boundary case -- the return type of a function is not required to be a
complete type until (a) the definition point or (b) the use point. I'd say
that the <long> iterator should _not_ be instantiated but the WP certainly
doesn't make that clear. Perhaps we'll work on it next week in Tokyo.





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