This is an unofficial snapshot of the ISO/IEC JTC1 SC22 WG21 Core Issues List revision 114a. See http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg21/ for the official list.

2024-04-18

204. Exported class templates

Section: Clause 13  [temp]     Status: CD1     Submitter: Robert Klarer     Date: 11 Feb 2000

[Voted into WP at April 2003 meeting.]

Clause 13 [temp] paragraph 7 allows class templates to be declared exported, including member classes and member class templates (implicitly by virtue of exporting the containing template class). However, paragraph 8 does not exclude exported class templates from the statement that

An exported template need only be declared (and not necessarily defined) in a translation unit in which it is instantiated.
This is an incorrect implication; however, it is also not dispelled in 13.9.2 [temp.inst] paragraph 6:
If an implicit instantiation of a class template specialization is required and the template is declared but not defined, the program is ill-formed.
This wording says nothing about the translation unit in which the definition must be provided. Contrast this with 13.9.3 [temp.explicit] paragraph 3:
A definition of a class template or a class member template shall be in scope at the point of the explicit instantiation of the class template or class member template.

Suggested resolution:


(See also issue 212.)

Notes from 04/00 meeting:

John Spicer opined that even though Clause 13 [temp] paragraph 7 speaks of "declaring a class template exported," that does not mean that the class template is "an exported template" in the sense of paragraph 8. He suggested clarifying paragraph 7 to that effect instead of the change to paragraph 8 suggested above, and questioned the need for a change to 13.9.2 [temp.inst].

Notes from the 4/02 meeting:

This is resolved by the proposed changes for issue 323.