[ARROW-711] [C++] Remove extern template declarations for NumericArray<T> types

• Type: New Feature
• Status: Closed
• Priority: Major
• Resolution: Won't Fix
• Fix Version/s: 0.3.0
• Component/s: C++
• External issue URL: https://github.com/apache/arrow/issues/16330
• Assignee: Wes McKinney
• Reporter: Wes McKinney
• Created: 25/Mar/17 19:02
• Updated: 11/Jan/23 07:10
• Resolved: 26/Mar/17 00:14

Description

It seems that linkers have diverging semantics around visibility when using the extern template declaration (see linker errors in https://ci.appveyor.com/project/ApacheSoftwareFoundation/arrow/build/1.0.841). Since the only thing impacted right now is the NumericArray<T> constructor, removing these doesn't seem too onerous. I ran the existing benchmarks and looked at the library sizes before and after, and there doesn't appear to be a meaningful difference.