I'm trying to use forward declarations so I don't have a whole bunch of #includes (it can slow down compile time, it's just a practice thing for me though) .Sounds to me like you've had enough practice on how to do it, and now you could use some practice with when it's appropariate to use it.
Ok so based on what everyone is saying I'm just making things harder for myself (which is obvious). So I will just put the all the required #includes in the Sprite.h
The only question I have is how do I know when I should use forward declartions and when is it ok to #include in a header? (I know you can do the later whenever but I have heard people say try to avoid it)
Thanks for all the replies.
I use forward declaration when it will only ever need a pointer to the object (like passing a pointer reference, or writing a container or a linked list), the core functionality is privately implemented with structure that the user never sees (thus can't include the definition), or for circular references.
Most of these apply to coding in C, where there isn't always a better way to do it, but the first one must be stressed: forward declaration is doable if you only ever need a pointer to the object. Don't decide to only use a pointer just to use forward declaration, because that's backwards. Always judge whether or not you need the full definition or not based on how the interface will be designed; don't design the interface for one or the other.
Actually, it's legal to declare a function that takes an object parameter by value with just a forward declaration. It's just not legal to call it or define it with only the forward declaration.
It was a joyous day when I figured that one out, my friend.
