Template friend can't be template parameter

[Gianni Mariani]

Does anyone know the wisdom behind this ?

I want to make a template whose parameter needs to be a friend.

What's the right(TM) way to do this ?

template <typename T, typename TF>
class Boo
{
friend class TF; // error: using template type
// parameter `TF' after `class'

friend TF; // error: template parameters cannot be friends

template <typename TF2>
class Obfuscator
{
public:

typedef TF2 ObfusType;
};

// the following seems to work for GCC but not MSVC
friend class Obfuscator<TF>: :ObfusType;

public:

T value;
};
class Tester
{
public:

Tester()
{
Boo< int, Tester > x;

x.value = 1;
}

};

[tom_usenet]

On 05 Sep 2003 01:45:20 GMT, Gianni Mariani <gi*******@mari ani.ws>
wrote:

Does anyone know the wisdom behind this ?

I want to make a template whose parameter needs to be a friend.

What's the right(TM) way to do this ?

There isn't a right way - it is forbidden by 11.4/2 which says that an
elaborated-type-specifier shall be used in a friend declaration for a
class.

For a detailed answer,
http://makeashorterlink.com/?F24766EC5

Tom