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From: Ed Avis <epa98@doc.ic.ac.uk>
Subject: Re: GPL and "free" software
Date: 1999/05/02
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Date: 1999-05-02T09:17:24+00:00
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Phil Hunt wrote:

>>Can't you write a template class in C++, and put
>>it in a dynamically linked library?
>
>I would be surprised if this is the case. However instantiations of
>templates can be put in a DLL or .so.

What do you mean by 'instantiations of templates'?

Surely if I write a class like this (pseudocode, I don't know Ada and
my C++ is rusty):

class List
  let T be any class
  method add(T)
  method get_first_item : returns T
  method count_items : returns Int

then there will only one copy of the executable code in the object
file.  If the program instantiates a List of Int, then the code for
List is called and passed pointers (or references) to Ints.  If the
program wants a List of Char, then the same object code can be used,
being passed pointers to Chars.

Or have I got it horribly wrong?

-- 
Ed Avis
Advertise here! epa98@doc.ic.ac.uk