Compiling a template

[Ali Çehreli]

On 12/06/2018 02:50 PM, albertas-jn wrote:
> If templates are a compile-time feature and instances of templates are 
> generated by compiler at compile time, why is it possible to compile a 
> template definition with dmd -lib or -c?

There is no trace of the template in the library or the object file. You 
can investigate the compiled symbols with e.g. the 'nm' tool on Linux 
systems:

// deneme.d:
void foo(T)(T t) {
     import std.stdio;
     writeln(t);
}

void main() {
     // foo(42);
}

$ dmd deneme.d -lib
$ nm deneme.a | grep foo

No trace of foo... Now uncomment the line in main and repeat:

$ dmd deneme.d -lib
$ nm deneme.a | grep foo
                  U _D6deneme__T3fooTiZQhFNfiZv
0000000000000000 W _D6deneme__T3fooTiZQhFNfiZv

"W" indicates a definition.

Ali