Compile header-only template library into a shared library?

Question

We are in the process of designing a new C++ library and decided to go with a template-based approach along with some specific partial template specialisations for corner ca

Answer 1

Yes. What you can do is explicitly instantiate the templates in CPP files using the compiler's explicit template instantiation syntax. Here is how to use explicit instantiation in VC++: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/by56e477(v=VS.100).aspx. G++ has a similar feature: http://gcc.gnu.org/onlinedocs/gcc/Template-Instantiation.html#Template-Instantiation.

Note that C++11 introduced a standard syntax for explicit instantiation, described in [14.7.2] Explicit instantiation of the FDIS:

The syntax for explicit instantiation is:

explicit-instantiation:

extern_opt template declaration