[boost] Re: CopyPtr and ClonePtr

From: jorg.schaible_at_[hidden]
Date: 2000-03-06 10:51:01

Hi Dave,

>Wow, you learn something new every day. I never thought of doing this... but
>of course it makes sense that the compiler doesn't require the definition of
>a template function to be visible just so it can compile a use of that
>function. That's pretty cool. In fact, I'll go out on a limb and say that
>it's way cool.

This programming style is very effective dealing with implementation classes
that encapsulates different GUI's. If every class you include must also compile
the complete Gui dependend headers (windows.h or X11/*.h) you will have your
compile time increased incrementally by unnecessary header coupling. See Jon
Lakos' book "Large-Scale C++ Software Design" for further information, one of
the few software books worth reading. The book demonstrates several technics,
architectual and design patterns, and measurement for software coupling. At
least they managed to decrease the compile time of their project from more than
a day to some few hours.

Regards,
Jörg