In article <01bdb598$034ee340$794a5ed1@gcolvin-hpc>,
  "Greg Colvin" <spam@me.not> wrote:
> jkanze@otelo.ibmmail.com wrote in article
> <6p2gv2$q2s$1@nnrp1.dejanews.com>...
> > In article <xKtdmDA6k4s1EwLs@noco.demon.co.uk>,
> >   Mike Davies <mike_davies@noco.demon.co.uk> wrote:
> >
> > > New ? Templates have been in the Borland compiler (thats just the o=
ne I
> > > know) since 1994.
> >
> > And even today, it is extremely difficult to write a portable program
> that
> > uses templates.  As late as Nov., 1997, the committee was rewording t=
he
> > template chapter, because of problems.  Even today, I know of NO comp=
iler
> > which implements templates as they are described in the standard.
>
> Perhaps, but I've been using templates in portable code for at least as
> long as Mike Davies.  As ever, you have to be careful to stick with the
> stable subset, but that subset has always been large enough to be usefu=
l.

If you were using them in 1994, you also had to choose a subset of the
compilers to support.  At least two of the compilers I used then didn't
support them, and I suspect that there were others.

About a year and a half ago, one major customer of mine, using HP platfor=
ms,
was unable to upgrade to the new HP compiler because none of his template
code (written for the old one) would work correctly with it.

--
James Kanze    +33 (0)1 39 23 84 71    mailto: kanze@gabi-soft.fr
        +49 (0)69 66 45 33 10    mailto: jkanze@otelo.ibmmail.com
GABI Software, 22 rue Jacques-Lemercier, 78000 Versailles, France
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jkanze@otelo.ibmmail.com wrote in article
<6p2gv2$q2s$1@nnrp1.dejanews.com>...
> In article <xKtdmDA6k4s1EwLs@noco.demon.co.uk>,
>   Mike Davies <mike_davies@noco.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>
> > New ? Templates have been in the Borland compiler (thats just the one I
> > know) since 1994.
>
> And even today, it is extremely difficult to write a portable program
that
> uses templates.  As late as Nov., 1997, the committee was rewording the
> template chapter, because of problems.  Even today, I know of NO compiler
> which implements templates as they are described in the standard.

Perhaps, but I've been using templates in portable code for at least as
long as Mike Davies.  As ever, you have to be careful to stick with the
stable subset, but that subset has always been large enough to be useful.
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