Strange VC++ compile error, C2244

Question

Take a look at this peice of code:

template 
Pointer::Iterator> BinaryTree::GetBegi         


        

Answer 1

It will compile if you change it to this:

template 
struct BinaryTree : Collection {
    Pointer::Iterator> GetBeginning() const;

};

template 
Pointer::Iterator> BinaryTree::GetBeginning() const
{
    return Pointer::Iterator>();
}

In general, the original code isn't quite right because it implies that GetBeginning() can return any collection, while (I'm assuming) it can only return binary tree collections.

EDIT:

After some digging, it seems that VC++ doesn't handle well injected class names. That is, the original code will compile if you remove from Collection::Iterator in the method declaration:

template 
struct BinaryTree : Collection {
    Pointer GetBeginning() const;

};

template 
Pointer::Iterator> BinaryTree::GetBeginning() const
{
    return Pointer::Iterator>();
}