C++ Core Guidelines Explained: Best Practices for Modern C++

Chapter 15

Source Files

Cippi juggles with source files.

With C++20 we get modules, but until we have modules available, we should distinguish between the implementation and the interface of our code.

The guidelines make their point regarding source files quite clear: “Distinguish between declarations (used as interfaces) and definitions (used as implementations). Use header files to represent interfaces and to emphasize logical structure.” Consequently, there are more than ten rules for source files. Most of the rules are quite concise. The first rules focus on interface and implementation files, and the remaining rules address namespaces ...