Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!taumet!steve
From: steve@taumet.com (Stephen Clamage)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c++
Subject: Re: Templates (again)
Message-ID: <773@taumet.com>
Date: 18 Jun 91 17:12:00 GMT
References: <1991Jun16.173916.143@and.cs.liv.ac.uk>
Organization: Taumetric Corporation, San Diego
Lines: 32

markr@and.cs.liv.ac.uk writes:

>I notice recently there has been a lot of talk of templates on this group.  I
>don't know much about the situation, and would like to ask:-

>*	are templates part of a standard for C++, or just a proposal?

There is no standard for C++ yet.  E&S (the ARM) describes templates,
and is the model the ANSI C++ committee is using.  The final standard
for C++ will include templates, and will look much like what is in E&S.
Templates in their final form may or may not be identical to what is
now in E&S.

>*	do any compilers support them yet?

No released commercial compilers that I know of.

>*	when they are supported, how efficient will they be in terms of
>	avoiding code duplication?  Will it be necessary to define a general
>	base class and use templates for type-specific derived classes?
>	(eg. template <class T> class Set<T> : public GenericSet {...})

Read E&S for a description of how they work.

>*	how does use of templates with the ti macro package differ from the
>	standard/proposal for the language?

The TI implementation is not a full template implementation.  The whole
job requires more than can be done by a preprocessor.
-- 

Steve Clamage, TauMetric Corp, steve@taumet.com