less strict type checking within template code

[andre maute]

there is the following piece of C++ code

------------------------------------------------------------
#include <iostream>

const int Dim = 3;

typedef double Point[Dim];

#ifdef __FOO1__
template< class T >
int foo( T &v ) { return 0; }
#endif

#ifdef __FOO2__
int foo( Point &v ) { return 0; }
#endif

#ifdef __OP1__
template< class T >
bool operator<( T &v1, T &v2 ) { return false; }
#endif

#ifdef __OP2__
bool operator<( Point &v1, Point &v2 ) { return false; }
#endif

int main() {

        Point p;

        std::cout << foo(p) << std::endl;
        std::cout << (p < p) << std::endl;

        return 0;

}
------------------------------------------------------------

g++ from kubuntu 6.10 with

user:~$ g++ -v
Using built-in specs.
Target: x86_64-linux-gnu
Configured 
with: ../src/configure -v --enable-languages=c,c++,fortran,objc,obj-c++,treelang --prefix=/usr --enable-shared --with-system-zlib --libexecdir=/usr/lib --without-included-gettext --enable-threads=posix --enable-nls --program-suffix=-4.1 --enable-__cxa_atexit --enable-clocale=gnu --enable-libstdcxx-debug --enable-mpfr --enable-checking=release 
x86_64-linux-gnu
Thread model: posix
gcc version 4.1.2 20060928 (prerelease) (Ubuntu 4.1.1-13ubuntu5)

produces the following

user:~$ g++ test.cxx -D __FOO1__ -D __OP1__
user:~$ g++ test.cxx -D __FOO1__ -D __OP2__
test.cxx:22: error: ‘bool operator<(double (&)[3], double (&)[3])’ must have 
an argument of class or enumerated type
user:~$ g++ test.cxx -D __FOO2__ -D __OP1__
user:~$ g++ test.cxx -D __FOO2__ -D __OP2__
test.cxx:22: error: ‘bool operator<(double (&)[3], double (&)[3])’ must have 
an argument of class or enumerated type

So my question is, why the operator in __OP2__ is treated differently
as the function in __FOO2__ ?