Templates

[Tom Backton]

Is it possible to put a class/function template definition in a header file and then include the file in the cpp files that use the template?

[Disch]

No easy way with the current standard.

There are tricks to accomplish it with instantiating the templates you need, but I never really understood how it worked completely, and it's errorprone anyway.

What I do instead, when I want to have a seperate file, is I just make a "blah.hpp" file for the implementation (vs a "blah.h" for the header), and #include the .hpp at the end of the .h. This allows me to keep them seperated, but still avoid the linker errors.

If you're interested about the instantiating method, I can refer you to this page:

http://www.parashift.com/c++-faq-lite/templates.html#faq-35.12

[firedraco]

Yes, but you MUST include the definition in the header file as well. You can't make a "template prototype."

[Tom Backton]

OK, thanks :)