Question

Consider this overly simple test:

class foo
{
    public:
        foo(int i);
        template< typename T > foo(T);
};

template<> foo::foo(int i) {}

Now, GCC is happy to accept this when compiling, but the RVCT compiler issues an error:

test.cpp", line 11: Error:  #792: "foo::foo(int)" is not an entity that can be explicitly specialized
 template<> foo::foo(int i) {}

Barring the issue of “why would you want to do this”, is this legal C++ (from an academic point of view?)

Thanks in advance

Answer 1

You are attempting to do an explicit specialization of template<typename T> foo(T) where T=int.

Did you actually want this?

template<typename T> foo::foo(T) {
}

— EDIT —

Just to make it clear: “explicit specialization” is legal in C++, but apparently your compiler does not support it (on individual methods anyway, maybe it does on whole classes?).