The Design and Evolution of C++, First Edition

15. Templates

There is nothing more difficult to carry out, nor more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to handle, than to initiate a new order of things.

– Niccolo Macchiavelli

Support for parameterized types — class templates — constraints on template arguments — avoiding storage overhead — function templates — deducing function template arguments — explicit specification of function template arguments — conditionals in templates — syntax — composition techniques — relationships among template classes — member templates — template instantiation — name binding in templates — specialization — explicit instantiation — a model for templates in files — importance of templates.

15.1 Introduction

Templates and exceptions were explicitly mentioned ...