Hi Everyone, I've encountered a problem with MSVC which I have no idea how to go around with regards to using extern placeholders for template method type deductions. Let me give an example: template <class T> struct some_type { }; struct a_type { } ; extern a_type placeholder ; template <class T> some_type<T> method(T) { return some_type<T>(); }; // ... { method(placeholder); } The code works (compiles fine) in GCC -- it doesn't bother looking for the placeholder during link time. However MSVC 8 throws a fit and doesn't want to link the executable because it keeps looking for the implementation of placeholder -- where the code obviously doesn't require linking to it in any way, except for the purposes of type deduction in the template method. Am I encountering an MSVC bug? Is there a better way of going about this? Insights would be most appreciated. Thanks in advance! -- Dean Michael C. Berris http://cplusplus-soup.blogspot.com/ mikhailberis AT gmail DOT com +63 928 7291459