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Document number: N4147

Date: 2014-09-25

Inline variables, or encapsulated expressions

by David Krauss

Excerpt:

Inline functions have favorable behavior for interfaces which cannot be exposed as objects. Often, users are encouraged to use them to wrap global variables, despite unnatural boilerplate. Other workarounds include class static data members, enumerators, macros, and variable templates, all with awkward syntax or downsides and limited applicability. This proposal defines the inline specifier on variable definitions to indicate semantics similar to inline function evaluation and linkage. More generally, this produces a facility for named values, or variables without persistence, which may supersede or complement the various workarounds.