I lost my copy of metaprogramming. I'm ordering another tomorrow. But here is what I'm up to. I've been doing the virtual path thing with old MFC classes and such, like: C:\\cpp\\RA_User_2_2\\$(TEST) or $(PATH)\$(TEST) etc. What I'm trying to do is derive from filesystem and wrap this virtual stuff around it to break away from the old stuff I have, (ugly stuff). I've gotten to the point where I'd like to snap different virtual sets in and don't want to build on the old stuff, filesystem is really cool. I have a client that has several clients and wants to set his configurations on the fly to handle them, I do it in code for myself, but it is not runtime. Anyway... So I started with: template<class String, class Traits> class basic_vpath; typedef basic_vpath< std::string, path_traits > vpath; template<class String, class Traits> class basic_vpath :public basic_path< String, Traits > { }; But I don't understand why I can just fine: CString strUserDirectory= _T("C:\\cpp\\RA_User_2_2\\$(TEST)"); path aPath( strUserDirectory ); But can't convert from CString, or even std::string with: CString strUserDirectory= _T("C:\\cpp\\RA_User_2_2\\$(TEST)"); vpath aPath( strUserDirectory ); I'm trying to extend what I see in path.hpp without success, and I've tried lots of stuff. Something to do with the converters? Thanks, Dan.