Noah Roberts wrote:
In int const x[5][5], the int contained within the dual array is the constant. In the case of T const& value[] though it is T that is const, which is an array. This is nonsense I believe (arrays are always r-values). VS seems to have no way to handle it while the others do.
I think this is a bug in VS. At first I thought that what I was doing and what you are doing where different because you had a typedef int[size][size] that you later declare a const object of. I thought maybe this actually made the *array* const but I was mistaken. The standard quite clearly states, with example, that even when you are doing that to a typedef of array type...the const applies to the elements, not to the array. The provided example from 8.3.4/1: typedef int A[5], AA[2][3]; typedef const A CA; // type is "array of 5 const int" typedef const AA CAA; // type is "array of 2 array of 3 const int" It doesn't get less ambiguous than that. That means, to me, that even when T is an array type, expecting a const reference of that type should resolve in the same manner and your template should resolve. As someone mentioned in comp.lang.c++ your second version (the one expecting an array) is a closer match and should be the one used. I think there's a bug in msvc in template typing. I'd bet that it's considering const T (&ref)[size] to be an /array of const array of int/ when passed an /array of array of const int/, which is nonsense in C++ and would never resolve to anything.