Re: "has member" detection using templates - why "." operator fails ?

I'm hoping someone can tell me why using member address of works and why
using the dot operator does not in the code below.

The code below uses the template function resolution mechanism to
determine wether a class contains a member. My understanding is that if
a template function has an error during resolution of the function
types, it is quietly eliminated from the resolution process. This can
be used to detect things that would normally be an error to detect in
regular code, namely checking for existance of a member. To get this
mechanism to work, you need to contrive a class where you force the
compiler at compile time to resolve which function to use but never
actually call the function - sizeof comes to the aid. Each of the
functions used can return a different sized object and the selection can
proceed based on the size of the object that would be returned.

So far so good.

In my last attempt to do this, I noticed that no matter what I did, when
I attempted to use the "." operator, the error was not silent. GCC as
well as Comeau's try it out were not silent about function template
resolution error when a "." operator was involved. However, taking the
sizeof a pointer to member works as expected.

The code is below. As posted it compiles under GCC (and I suspect
comeau). I have not tested this on MSVC but if my experience a while
back is any indication, it probably does not compile indicating a bug in
MSVC.

Why does the "." operator fail to compile in this case and the &T::
succeed ?