Re: [boost] Re: Question about interpretation of ISO C++ standard

From: Jens Maurer (Jens.Maurer_at_[hidden])
Date: 2001-05-20 15:24:54

John Max Skaller wrote:
> The solution is: ALWAYS declare the function first,
> outside the class. Like this:
> 
>         void f();
>         class X { friend void f(); };
>         void f() { .. }
> 
> The friend declaration does nothing here except
> let the definition of f get at the private parts of X:

This is fine for non-template classes X and functions f
not taking a parameter of type X.

For the point in question here, declaring the function
first is not a viable option:

namespace N {
template<class T>
class X {
  friend void f(T x) { ... }
}
}

X<int> x;

makes exactly N::f(int x) (non-template) available for Koenig
lookup, and no other overload of N::f.  I know of no other way to
achieve the same effect other than manually declaring N::f for all
possible types T, of which there are infinitely many.

Jens Maurer