Weird link error

[anonymous via Digitalmars-d-learn]

On Monday, 20 April 2015 at 17:02:18 UTC, CodeSun wrote:
> I have test a snippet of code, and I encountered with a weird 
> link error.
> The following is the demo:
>
> import std.stdio;
> interface Ti {
> 	T get(T)(int num);
> 	T get(T)(string str);
> }
>
> class Test : Ti {
> 	T get(T)(int num) {
> 		writeln("ok");
> 	}
> 	T get(T)(string str) {
> 		writeln(str);
> 	}
> }
> void main() {
> 	Ti tt = new Test;
> 	tt.get!string("test");
> 	tt.get!string(123);
> }
>
>
> When I use dmd to compile this code snippet, the following link 
> error was reported:
> tt.d:(.text._Dmain+0x3b)：‘_D2tt2Ti12__T3getTAyaZ3getMFAyaZAya’ 
> undefined reference
> tt.d:(.text._Dmain+0x49)：‘_D2tt2Ti12__T3getTAyaZ3getMFiZAya’undefined 
> reference
>
> And if I modigy the code to
> Test tt = new Test;
>
> then this code will work.

Template methods are non-virtual. That is, you can't override 
them.

> So does it mean I can't declare function template inside 
> interface? If so, why didn't dmd report the error while 
> compiling instead of linking?

You can theoretically implement them elsewhere. For example, this 
works:

----
module test;

interface Ti {
     T get(T)(int num);
     T get(T)(string str);
}

pragma(mangle, "_D4test2Ti12__T3getTAyaZ3getMFiZAya") string 
impl(int)
{
     return "foo";
}
pragma(mangle, "_D4test2Ti12__T3getTAyaZ3getMFAyaZAya") string 
impl(string)
{
     return "bar";
}

class Test : Ti {}

void main() {
     Ti tt = new Test;
     tt.get!string("test");
     tt.get!string(123);
}
----

It's really silly, though. I don't know if there's a more 
realistic use case.

> And where I can find the D symbol definition, because 
> information like ‘_D2tt2Ti12__T3getTAyaZ3getMFAyaZAya’ makes me 
> really confused.

That's a mangled name. There's a tool called ddemangle. It comes 
with the D releases. You can pipe the compiler output through it 
to get more readable symbol names (don't forget to redirect 
stderr to stdout). For this one it gives gives you 
"immutable(char)[] 
tt.Ti.get!(immutable(char)[]).get(immutable(char)[])".