Ovanes Markarian wrote:
Just a small addition. You can also specialize the template in another file, that is seen in the translation unit. But anyway you need to specialize it. I hope with a new C++09 standard (it is still pretty far away), it will be possible to inspect if a class has a specific member function (using typeof or decltype operators). Currently it is only possible with has_xxx macros.
http://unitlib.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/unitlib/trunk/include/unitlib/metafunc/is_quantity_operand.hpp?revision=6&view=markup A meta function that is composed of two meta functions that check for the existence of a function with a particular signature in the passed in type and for the existence of a typedef of a particular name. Uses SFINAE for testing mechanics. I don't know that this would help with the OP's problem except to make sure there is a smart pointer that responds to a particular interface. If that is what is needed then something like that would help.