C++ Templates: The Complete Guide, 2nd Edition

Chapter 9

Using Templates in Practice

Template code is a little different from ordinary code. In some ways templates lie somewhere between macros and ordinary (nontemplate) declarations. Although this may be an oversimplification, it has consequences not only for the way we write algorithms and data structures using templates but also for the day-to-day logistics of expressing and analyzing programs involving templates.

In this chapter we address some of these practicalities without necessarily delving into the technical details that underlie them. Many of these details are explored in Chapter 14. To keep the discussion simple, we assume that our C++ compilation systems consist of fairly traditional compilers and linkers (C++ systems that don’t ...