Re: export keyword support

["Martin v. Loewis" <martin at mira dot isdn dot cs dot tu-berlin dot de>]

> I have read through the archives, FAQs, etc, and I understand the export
> keyword for defining template class members in seperate source files is not
> yet supported, however, I have not found anywhere if this is being worked
> on, or can be expected in any future release?

AFAIK, exported templates are not directly worked on at the
moment. Yet, the g++ maintainers wish to provide a standards
conforming implementation of C++, so it will eventually get
implemented.

> Is this a low-priority incompatability? 

At the moment, it would seem so. Please understand that GCC, among
other things, is a volunteers project (although there are also
companies which employ developers full-time to work on GCC).

As a volunteers project, it is always possible that this guy shows up
tomorrow, says he wants to do exported templates, and comes back with
an implementation next month. So far, nobody showed up.

> Does anyone know when I can expect to see it?

I don't think anybody can do so at the moment.

> Working on a large project that I'm following a very strict coding
> style on, and would hate to have to work completely in header files
> to make it work..

I think there is something wrong with your coding style then, or with
your choice of programming language. In C++, it is a fact of life that
you have to put implementations into header files (very much like
Java, if you look at it).

> I understand there is also a method to get around it with pragmas and off
> compile time options, but I'm also looking to be fully compatable on many
> compilers. (Yes, I know many other compilers don't support this either)

It would go further than that: Do you know *any* compiler that really
supports exported templates? (where 'really' stands for: I've seen it
myself, or I have a non-vendor report that it works)

Regards,
Martin