http://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=40056
--- Comment #10 from Jonathan Wakely <redi at gcc dot gnu.org> 2012-03-08 21:05:02 UTC --- (In reply to comment #9) > Hmm, I can't understand this (though I don't know all the details of the C++ > standard). If I'm writing class MyClass with public method Read, this is > absolutely normal to declare Read function in the class declaration in the > MyClass.h header and define it in the MyClass.cpp. Templates are supposed to > work just as a normal functions, with the difference that code is written > once, > instead of writing a bunch of overloaded functions. No, they aren't just like normal functions. Maybe you should read http://www.parashift.com/c++-faq-lite/templates.html#faq-35.12 > If all templates must be defined in the single header, this would make an > thousands lines of code header file. Who said they have to be in a /single/ header? Have you ever looked at the implementation of e.g. <string> or <vector>? They're entirely defined in headers. There's a reason for that. > And explicit template will require > compile-tyme type specification, which is impossible due to RTTI being used. I don't know what RTTI has to do with anything and don't know what you mean. The explicit instantiation you need is the one that you get a linker error for i.e. extern template int TStreamerInfo::ReadBuffer(TBuffer&, char** const&, int, int, int, int);
