Can I write C++ code without headers (repetitive function declarations)?

Question

Is there any way to not have to write function declarations twice (headers) and still retain the same scalability in compiling, clarity in debugging, and flexibility in desi

Answer 1

To offer a variant on the popular answer of rix0rrr:

// foo.cph

#define INCLUDEMODE
#include "foo.cph"
#include "other.cph"
#undef INCLUDEMODE

void foo()
#if !defined(INCLUDEMODE)
{
   printf("Hello World!\n");
}
#else
;
#endif

void bar()
#if !defined(INCLUDEMODE)
{
    foo();
}
#else
;
#endif

I do not recommend this, bit I think this construction demonstrates the removal of content repetition at the cost of rote repetition. I guess it makes copy-pasta easier? That's not really a virtue.

As with all the other tricks of this nature, a modification to the body of a function will still require recompilation of all files including the file containing that function. Very careful automated tools can partially avoid this, but they would still have to parse the source file to check, and be carefully constructed to not rewrite their output if it's no different.

For other readers: I spent a few minutes trying to figure out include guards in this format, but didn't come up with anything good. Comments?