[Boost-users] Problem with 'cannot instantiate abstract class' after switching from BOOST 1.33.0 to 1.34.1 (also VS2005 -> VS2008)

Subject: [Boost-users] Problem with 'cannot instantiate abstract class' after switching from BOOST 1.33.0 to 1.34.1 (also VS2005 -> VS2008)
From: Tobias Alte (tobias_alte_at_[hidden])
Date: 2009-03-13 14:41:07

Hi everyone,

After switching from BOOST 1.33.0 to 1.34.1 (and also from VS2005 -> 
VS2008) we got a couple of problems with "cannot instantiate abstract 
class" errors.

The application compiles fine in the setup VS2005 + BOOST 1.33.0 but 
suddenly started to throw a couple of "cannot instantiate abstract 
class" errors when using VS2008 + BOOST 1.34.1 .

The errors itself get reported for 'concept_check.hpp' but that header 
did not change between the two BOOST releases (as far as I know - I 
think I made a diff with no results).

I believe that the issue is most likely related to the 
boost::shared_ptr's to templated classes in our code.

I already solved a few of these errors that arose thanks to slightly 
different types in the method definitions thanks to VS2008 having more 
built in types.

However, the current "cannot instantiate abstract class" errors are 
persistently eluding my grasp. And the compiler is not helpful with just 
reporting the error in 'concept_check.hpp' and not where it really is.

Questions:

Can anyone of you think of additional (compiler) switches for BOOST (or 
even VS2008) that could help track down these kind of the issues?

Did anyone experience similar problems when switching between BOOST 
versions (in general)?

Thanks a lot for reading this and for any advice.
T