Re: [boost] New libraries should provide forward declarations?

From: David Abrahams (dave_at_[hidden])
Date: 2008-08-21 22:47:05

on Wed Aug 20 2008, "Simonson, Lucanus J" <lucanus.j.simonson-AT-intel.com> wrote:

> On 20/08/2008, Simonson, Lucanus J <lucanus.j.simonson_at_[hidden]> wrote:
>>>
>>>  I third the question, should we make separating template
> declarations
>>>  from their definitions a preferred practice?
>
> Daniel wrote:
>>Some libraries don't do this because they still support older
>>compilers where template functions have to be defined inline.
>
> Is this rational still valid for new libraries?  I would imagine that
> there are a number of recent libraries accepted that don't support the
> older compilers for other reasons.  I was proposing we make it a
> preferred practice for ongoing and future development.  I would not
> suggest we revise mature libraries to conform to this style.  Do you
> think that is reasonable?

Frankly I find that style adds so much syntactic overhead that it seldom
benefits readability.

-- 
Dave Abrahams
BoostPro Computing
http://www.boostpro.com