Friends of template classes.

[Jacek Generowicz]

Hi,

On page 854 of the C++ Programming language Edition 3, Stroustrup
implies that friends of template classes can be declared thus:

   template<class T> class Thing {
      friend return_type fn_name( args );
   .
   .
   .
   }

Whenever I try to compile something of this sort with g++ I get errors
of the following general type

   friend declaration `return_type fn_name( args )'
   declares a non-template function
   (if this is not what you intended, make sure
   the function template has already been declared,
   and add <> after the function name here)


Following this suggestion I tried

   template<class T> class Thing {
      friend return_type fn_name<> ( args );
   .
   .
   .
   }

which works fine.

However, I am now sharing development with people using different
compilers (Microsoft Visual C++): the second version of the code does
not work for them while the first one does.

Is this a non-standard feature of g++ or is my understanding of C++
failing me ?  Are there any ways to get around the apparent
incompatibility ?

Thanks,

Jacek