I get the following compilation error for this simple program under MSVC6: ************** test.cpp****************** #include <iostream> #include "boost/date_time/gregorian/gregorian.hpp" int main() { using namespace std; cout << ispunct(',') << endl; return 0; } ************************************ error: --------------------Configuration: names_test - Win32 Debug-------------------- Compiling... test.cpp c:\documents and settings\waldbcar.waldbcar\my documents\my projects\vc\test\names_test\test.cpp(8) : error C2668: 'ispunct' : ambiguous call to overloaded function Error executing cl.exe. test.obj - 1 error(s), 0 warning(s) Normally, this sort of thing would not be a problem, as I typically would just be using the qualified std::ispunct() instead of a using directive. However, this problem cropped up when I was trying to use the date-time library in conjuction with the Spirit parsing library. Spirit implements some function by doing exactly what I did in the above sample-- using a using directive and then calling ispunct() unqualified. I am guessing the ratonale behind this might have something to do with the fact that under MSVC6, functions like ispunct() (and most or all of <ccytpe>) seem to have been dumped into the global namespace by default. However, it seems like the date-time library must be doing something like: namespace std { using ::ispunct; } somewhere in its internals (or maybe just using something else that does?). Anyway, it seems to be a shame that I can't get these two great libraries to work together on my compiler. Is there any chance that someone out there might have a solution? Carl Waldbieser waldbie<at-sign>attglobal.net