What does 'inline' mean?

[Manu]

On Wed, Jun 10, 2020 at 9:30 AM Manu <turkeyman at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Wed, Jun 10, 2020 at 7:15 AM Walter Bright via Digitalmars-d <
> digitalmars-d at puremagic.com> wrote:
>
>> On 6/9/2020 4:31 AM, Atila Neves wrote:
>> > On Monday, 8 June 2020 at 23:19:55 UTC, Jonathan M Davis wrote:
>> >> On Monday, June 8, 2020 8:09:04 AM MDT Manu via Digitalmars-d wrote:
>> >>> On Mon, Jun 8, 2020 at 8:20 PM Walter Bright via Digitalmars-d <
>> >>> > C/C++ inline has always been a hint to the compiler, not a >
>> command.
>> >>>
>> >>> It's not a hint at all. It's a mechanical tool; it marks symbols with
>> >>> internal linkage, and it also doesn't emit them if it's never
>> referenced. The
>> >>> compiler may not choose to ignore that behaviour, it's absolutely
>> necessary,
>> >>> and very important.
>> >>
>> >> It is my understanding that in C++, inline is a hint to the compiler
>> with
>> >> regards to whether a particular function call is actually inlined.
>> >
>> > That's a common misconception, and one that exists due to that being
>> its
>> > original intended purpose. But nowawadays? Nope:
>> >
>> > https://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/language/inline
>>
>>
>> "Since this meaning of the keyword inline is non-binding, compilers are
>> free to
>> use inline substitution for any function that's not marked inline, and
>> are free
>> to generate function calls to any function marked inline. Those
>> optimization
>> choices do not change the rules regarding multiple definitions and shared
>> statics listed above."
>>
>> I.e. it is a hint.
>>
>
> It's like you skipped over ALL OF THE OTHER TEXT, where it details
> numerous precise behavioural requirements :/
>

The the sentence that immediately follows your quote is:
"Because the meaning of the keyword inline for functions came to mean
"multiple definitions are permitted" rather than "inlining is preferred",
that meaning was extended to variables."
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