This is an unofficial snapshot of the ISO/IEC JTC1 SC22 WG21 Core Issues List revision 116a. See http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg21/ for the official list.

2024-12-19

141. Non-member function templates in member access expressions

[Voted into the WP at the June, 2008 meeting.]

_N4868_.6.5.6 [basic.lookup.classref] paragraph 1 says,

In a class member access expression (7.6.1.5 [expr.ref] ), if the . or -> token is immediately followed by an identifier followed by a <, the identifier must be looked up to determine whether the < is the beginning of a template argument list (13.3 [temp.names] ) or a less-than operator. The identifier is first looked up in the class of the object expression. If the identifier is not found, it is then looked up in the context of the entire postfix-expression and shall name a class or function template.

There do not seem to be any circumstances in which use of a non-member template function would be well-formed as the id-expression of a class member access expression.

Proposed Resolution (November, 2006):

Change _N4868_.6.5.6 [basic.lookup.classref] paragraph 1 as follows:

In a class member access expression (7.6.1.5 [expr.ref]), if the . or -> token is immediately followed by an identifier followed by a <, the identifier must be looked up to determine whether the < is the beginning of a template argument list (13.3 [temp.names]) or a less-than operator. The identifier is first looked up in the class of the object expression. If the identifier is not found, it is then looked up in the context of the entire postfix-expression and shall name a class or function template...