Issues in the instantiation of template classes

ABSTRACT

Teaching students to incorporate template classes into their C++ projects is an important concept in object-oriented programming. The most efficient implementation method for template classes is dependent on several factors. Two significant factors are different integrated development environments with differing requirements, and incongruous philosophies among instructors. Herein, several template class instantiation methods under Gnu compilers will be discussed, along with their pros and cons.

REFERENCES

• 1: Martin J. Cole , Steven G. Parker, Dynamic compilation of C++ template code, Scientific Programming, v.11 n.4, p.321-327, December 2003
• 2: GNU Project, A GNU Manual, http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Template-Instantiation.html, Section 6.5, 2005.
• 3: Douglas Gregor , Jaakko Järvi, Variadic templates for C++, Proceedings of the 2007 ACM symposium on Applied computing, March 11-15, 2007, Seoul, Korea [doi>10.1145/1244002.1244243]
• 4: Glen McCluskey , Robert B. Murray, Template instantiation for C++, ACM SIGPLAN Notices, v.27 n.12, p.47-56, Dec. 1992 [doi>10.1145/142181.142195]
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• 6: Arturo J. Sánchez , Jia Dei-Wei, Towards a graphical notation to express the C++ template instantiation process (poster session), Addendum to the 2000 proceedings of the conference on Object-oriented programming, systems, languages, and applications (Addendum), p.117-118, January 2000, Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States [doi>10.1145/367845.368015]
• 7: Savitch, W., Absolute C++, 1^st Edition, Addison-Wesley Longman Publishing Co., Inc., pp. 672--677, Boston, MA, 2002
• 8: Spiegel, D. S., Array Template Class Example, CSC 136, Computer Science II Example, http://faculty.kutztown.edu/spiegel/CSc136/C++/Array Template ADT/2 File/Gnu_Types.tpp/, 2005.

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  D. Software
  D.1 PROGRAMMING TECHNIQUES
      D.1.5 Object-oriented Programming

Additional Classification:
  D. Software
  D.3 PROGRAMMING LANGUAGES
      D.3.2 Language Classifications
          Subjects: Object-oriented languages
      D.3.3 Language Constructs and Features
          Subjects: Classes and objects

  K. Computing Milieux
  K.3 COMPUTERS AND EDUCATION
      K.3.2 Computer and Information Science Education
          Subjects: Computer science education

General Terms:
Languages, Performance, Standardization

Keywords:
C++, borland model, explicit instantiation, gnu compiler, header file, implementation file, implicit instantiation, template class