Re: C++ Template implementation

Bill Fahle wrote in message 98-04-086...
>template_class_name::= template_name "<" List(template_arg) ">".
>
>template_arg::= expression | type_name.
>
>b) Why are expressions necessary to the template_arg? I've never seen
>this in practice, and I'm not sure of the semantics. These seem to
>cause a lot of the conflicts I experience, because of the >
>ambiguity. A general expression would indeed be ambiguous:
>
>SpecificList<Specific *, a>b > m_specificList;




An expression argument can be any compile-time constant. The problem with
ambiguity is solved by adding parentheses:


SpecificList<Specific *, (a>b) > m_specificList;


A case where you might see this in practice would be a fixed-size template
data structure:


template<class T, int M, int N>
class Matrix { private: T data[M*N]; ... };


Matrix<int, 3, 2> x; // x is a 3x2 matrix of integers


This is just the tip of the iceberg, though. To see some uses of templates
that will make your head spin, look at Blitz++:


      http://seurat.uwaterloo.ca/blitz/


jw
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