I have been attempting to hide the boost interface when using the boost smart pointers. I basically want to get rid of boost declarations in my API's. This basically involves typedef-ing template classes, and the best solution I have been able to come up with is: template <typename T> struct pointer { typedef boost::scoped_ptr<T> obj; typedef boost::scoped_array<T> arr; typedef boost::shared_ptr<T> sobj; typedef boost::shared_array<T> sarr; }; so I can do things like pointer<int>::arr var(new int[10]). This works fine, but if I try to get tricky it falls apart. Another example: template <typename T> class Stuff { private: pointer<T>::arr some_stuff; }; This does not work (I can't even start to tell you why), but I have hit the point where I have to start second guessing my approach to this problem. Are there other (possibly terrible) tricks to get around the typedef templates problem? Any input will probably help. -thanks