Terminology of Templates

Terminology of Templates

template<typename T>class Stack{public:    void push(T val);    T pop();    bool isEmpty() const;
private:    std::vector<T> mStack;};

    Stack<int> mStackInt;
,,,,
00  Template  Parameters
      T

01  Template Arguments
      int

02 Instantiation
      Stack<int> mStackInt;

03  Implicit Instantiation


04  Emplicit Instantiation


05  Lazy Instantiation


06  Specialization


07  Partial Specialization

Pros and Cons of Templates

Pros

• It provides us type-safe, efficient generic containers and generic algorithms
• The main reason for using C++ and templates is the trade-offs in performance and maintainability outweigh the bigger size of the resulting code and longer compile times.
• The drawbacks of not using them are likely to be much greater.

Cons

• Templates can lead to slower compile-times and possibly larger executable.
• Compilers often produce incomprehensible poor error diagnostics and poor error messages.
• The design of the STL collections tends to lead to a lot of copying of objects. The original smart pointer, std::auto_ptr, wasn't suitable for use in most collections. Things could be improved if we use other smart pointers from boost or C11.