Re: quick explanation of genclass(1)?

[Mike Stump <mrs at windriver dot com>]

> Date: Wed, 4 Oct 2000 00:32:19 -0700 (PDT)
> From: "Jeremy C. Reed" <reed@reedmedia.net>
> To: gcc@gcc.gnu.org

> I am writing an article about esoteric commands and I am trying to
> figure out what genclass(1) is.

Unless you are writing an article for a history book or doing some
sort of software archelogy, please don't.  Pretend you never saw it,
forget that you knew anything about it.

In C++ they are called templates.  Any introduction book on C++ will
cover templates and what they are.

Your friendly Rosicrucian...  :-)

Ok, now onto the answer...

> Can anyone briefly explain, with a sentence or two, in easy-to-understand,
> laymen-terms, what genclass can be used for?

genclass is a macro prcessor that will take a template (generic term,
not the C++ term) of source code and substitute in a parameter or two
into that template and generate a file.  For example, if we want a
list of integers, in the old style, we would do:

genclass 'int' val List foo

and then in the file fooList.[ch] you will find the interface and
implementation of that class.  There is a builtin list of templates
that you can see with:

genclass -list

In the standard style of C++, one would now do:

#include <list>

list<int> li;

and be done with it.  Notice how much easier that is...

> Does it have any current purpose or value?

The only purpose would be to compile software that people are to lazy
to update to conform the the C++ standard that was written ages ago
(~1990) to work with g++.