Half a dozen of members in path.hpp use complex "basic_path<String, Traits>::string_type::value_type" as function parameter type: template< class String, class Traits > inline bool operator==( const typename basic_path<String, Traits>::string_type::value_type * lhs, //<<== uses string_type const basic_path<String, Traits> & rhs ) The basic_path has typedef "value_type", defined as string_type::value_type, so it should be possible to replace the function signature with shorter: template< class String, class Traits > inline bool operator==( const typename basic_path<String, Traits>::value_type * lhs, // <<== no string_type const basic_path<String, Traits> & rhs ) Incidentally, this works around a bug in Digital Mars 8.49.1 compiler (which fails to deal with the "string_type"). /Pavel