FAQ: What's the idea behind templates? ←(in the new Super-FAQ)

 

It's in Section: Templates:

• FAQ: What's the idea behind templates? (this FAQ)
• FAQ: What's the syntax / semantics for a "class template"?
• FAQ: What's the syntax / semantics for a "function template"?
• FAQ: How do I explicitly select which version of a function template should get called?
• FAQ: What is a "parameterized type"?
• FAQ: What is "genericity"?
• FAQ: My template function does something special when the template type T is int or std::string; how do I write my template so it uses the special code when T is one of those specific types?
• FAQ: Huh? Can you provide an example of template specialization that doesn't use foo and bar?
• FAQ: But most of the code in my template function is the same; is there some way to get the benefits of template specialization without duplicating all that source code?
• FAQ: All those templates and template specializations must slow down my program, right?
• FAQ: So templates are overloading, right?
• FAQ: Why can't I separate the definition of my templates class from its declaration and put it inside a .cpp file?
• FAQ: How can I avoid linker errors with my template functions?
• FAQ: How does the C++ keyword export help with template linker errors?
• FAQ: How can I avoid linker errors with my template classes?
• FAQ: Why do I get linker errors when I use template friends?
• FAQ: How can any human hope to understand these overly verbose template-based error messages?
• FAQ: Why am I getting errors when my template-derived-class uses a nested type it inherits from its template-base-class?
• FAQ: Why am I getting errors when my template-derived-class uses a member it inherits from its template-base-class?
• FAQ: Can the previous problem hurt me silently? Is it possible that the compiler will silently generate the wrong code?
• FAQ: How can I create a container-template that allows my users to supply the type of the underlying container that actually stores the values?
• FAQ: Follow-up to previous: can I pass in the underlying structure and the element-type separately?
• FAQ: Related: all those proxies must negatively reflect on the speed of my program. Don't they?