basic_cstring_test currently fails to compile on the latest pre-release version of HP's cxx compiler. The following sample illustrates the problem: template <typename T> static void foo(T * t) { } template <typename T> void func() { foo((T *) 0); } // (*) int main() { func<int>(); return 0; } The call to foo at (*) doesn't find the declaration for foo because dependent name lookup for functions referred by an unqualified id only finds functions with external linkage. (See 14.6.4.2) A possible fix is to remove the static from the declaration of foo. Applied to basic_cstring_test, this would mean to remove the static from the declaration of test_string(). Markus