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From: rfg@ics.uci.edu (Ronald Guilmette)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c++,gnu.g++,gnu.g++.bug
Subject: Re: Typedefs in class declarations.
Keywords: typedef class
Message-ID: <25D3DCB8.16923@paris.ics.uci.edu>
Date: 10 Feb 90 09:19:52 GMT
References: <6016@cadillac.CAD.MCC.COM>
Reply-To: rfg@ics.uci.edu (Ronald Guilmette)
Organization: UC Irvine Department of ICS
Lines: 25

In article <6016@cadillac.CAD.MCC.COM> ned@MCC.COM (Ned Nowotny) writes:
>What, if anything, is special about typedefs which are enclosed within a class
>declaration?  G++ 1.36.4 does not recognize typedef names outside the scope
>of an enclosing class declaration and I am not enough of a language lawyer
>to know whether this is really a problem.

Currently, g++ treats class-nested typedefs as local to the containing
class.  This is certainly different from what cfront 2.0 currently does.
Whether it is a problem or not depends on what you are trying to do.
Little incompatabilities like this are always mildly irritating however.

I have mentioned this difference to MDT and I believe that he is disinclined
to change the g++ treatement at this time.  Part of his reasoning may be that
there have been some suggestions made regarding rule changes for class-
nested types.  I think he would prefer to wait and see what happens there.
(But I should not be speaking for him.)

>I do know, however, that you
>can't declare something as a classname::typedef.  Therefore, it would seem that
>G++'s behavior is either a bug, or typedefs within class declarations are
>nearly useless.

They may be useful within the class.  Think encapsulation!

// rfg