Peter Dimov wrote:
David Abrahams wrote:
Simple: specializations that follow the point of instantiation aren't considered. This program exits with an error:
template <class T> int f(T) { return 1; }
int main() { return ::f(0); }
template <> int f(int) { return 0; }
It's ill-formed, actually.
On reflection, I think I see what you are trying to illustrate, and I also think that you are wrong. #include <iostream> // f.hpp template<class T> void f(T) { std::cout << "General\n"; } // g.hpp template<class T> void g(T t) { ::f(t); } // X.hpp struct X {}; /*template<>*/ void f(X) { std::cout << "X-specific\n"; } // main.cpp int main() { f( X() ); g( X() ); } Uncomment the /*template<>*/ to see what I mean. No order dependency.