When templates in C++

[Igor.Smirnov]

Does somebody remember, when templates appeared really in C++ compilers
and became fully operational, and also when they appeared in C++ standard?

Thanks!
--

 

[Rolf Magnus]

Does somebody remember, when templates appeared really in C++ compilers
and became fully operational,

Sorry, don't know that.

and also when they appeared in C++ standard?

They appeared in the C++ standard when C++ was standardized in 1998, so they
actually have always been part of standard C++.

 

[Ian]

Does somebody remember, when templates appeared really in C++ compilers
and became fully operational, and also when they appeared in C++ standard?

I first used then in '94. Support was a bit patchy then, so I guess
they must have appeared in the early 90s.

Ian

 

[Sherm Pendley]

I first used then in '94. Support was a bit patchy then, so I guess
they must have appeared in the early 90s.

Sounds about right. I have an issue of DDJ from March '95 which has an inter-
view with Alexander Stepanov, in which he says "I returned to generic-library
development in 1992 [...] C++ had templates by then."

I found a reprint of the interview here:

<http://www.sgi.com/tech/stl/drdobbs-interview.html>

sherm--

 

[Bob Hairgrove]

Does somebody remember, when templates appeared really in C++ compilers
and became fully operational, and also when they appeared in C++ standard?

Thanks!

Here's a quote from Bjarne Stroustrup's "The Design and Evolution of
C++" (Addison-Wesley, 1994, ISBN 0-201-54330-3, p. 337 [beginning of
chapter 15]):

"Templates and exceptions were explicitly mentioned in the 'whatis'
paper [Stroustrup, 1986b](§3.15) as desirable for C++, the designs for
the two features were presented in papers [Stroustrup, 1988b] [Koenig,
1989b] [Koenig, 1990], in the ARM, and their inclusion into the
language was mandated in the proposal for standardization of C++.
Thus, even though the implementation and availability of templates and
exception handling in C++ post-dates the start of the standardization
effort, their design and the desire for them goes much further back in
C++'s history."

Great book for this kind of stuff!