Developing and Porting C and C++ Applications on AIX

10.4. Template instantiation file method

The template instantiation file method on AIX basically means letting the compiler decide which template code to instantiate as a final step in the compile and link process. This solves the long compile time disadvantage of the simple template code layout method because the compiler need only compile each template instance once.

This method requires that the declaration and definition of the template are kept in separate files. This is because only the template declaration must be included in every compilation unit that uses the template. If the definition of the template were also in the header file, it would also be included in the source file, and thus compiled, resulting in a situation similar to ...