Rob Stewart wrote:
* pimpl's member functions should be inlined.
They are all trivial, so you should make them inline.
Aren't templates always inlined?
Agreed, and besides, isn't it usually better to let the compiler decide what to inline or not inline on its own unless extensive profiling shows that adding the inline keyword really gives you a big performance gain?
Does that mean you think they are always inlined?
Many compilers don't do it at all unless you suggest it via "inline" or put the code in the class definition. Some will inline things you didn't suggest should be.
In this case, the functions are nothing but forwarding functions. Why would you want to pay for an extra function call on those compilers that won't do anything unless you ask for it?
Based on reading item 25 in Herb Sutter's "Exceptional C++ Style", I was under the impression that a decent compiler would easily inline calls like this on its own, without any suggestions from the programmer. But then I haven't directly done any profiling myself to compare how differently modern compilers behave when explicitly provided with the inline keyword, so I could well just be under a mistaken impression. -Jason