Strange compiler error w.r.t 'friend ostream& operator<< <>(ostream&, ...)'

From:
abhay.burli@gmail.com
Newsgroups:
comp.lang.c++
Date:
Wed, 25 Feb 2009 03:20:58 -0800 (PST)
Message-ID:
<8022571a-5f3f-47a0-b875-56cee385750b@l39g2000yqn.googlegroups.com>
I have the following piece of code ...

NOTE: I have intentionally qualified 'ostream' and 'cout' with 'std::'
for the purposes of the example

#include<iostream>
using namespace std;

template<class T>
class SomeClass{
public:
    SomeClass(const T& a) : member(a)
    {
    }
    friend std::ostream& operator<< <>(std::ostream &,SomeClass <T>&);
private:
    T member;
};

template <typename T>
std::ostream& operator<< (std::ostream &os, SomeClass<T>&some)
{
    os<<"( " << some.member <<") ";
    return os;
}

int main(int argc, char* argv[])
{
    SomeClass<int> sc(5);
    std::cout << sc;
    return 0;
}

This compiles fine.
Now just comment out the line 'using namespace std;' and comeau spits
out the following ...
<--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Comeau C/C++ 4.3.10.1 (Oct 6 2008 11:28:09) for
ONLINE_EVALUATION_BETA2
Copyright 1988-2008 Comeau Computing. All rights reserved.
MODE:strict errors C++ C++0x_extensions

"ComeauTest.c", line 11: error: operator<< is not a template,
    Should it be XX::operator<<?, where XX is some namespace?
    Did you #include the right header?
   friend std::ostream& operator<< <>(std::ostream &,SomeClass <T>&);
   ^

"ComeauTest.c", line 19: error: member "SomeClass<T>::member [with
T=int]" (declared
          at line 13) is inaccessible
   os<<"( " <<some.member <<") ";
   ^
          detected during instantiation of "std::ostream
                    &operator<<(std::ostream &, SomeClass<T> &) [with
T=int]"
                    at line 26

2 errors detected in the compilation of "ComeauTest.c".
<--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 and following from MSVC 2005 (Team Edition) is worse ...
<--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1>Compiling...
1>Hello World.cpp
1>.\Hello World.cpp(2112) : error C2143: syntax error : missing ';'
before '<'
1> .\Hello World.cpp(2113) : see reference to class template
instantiation 'S<T>' being compiled
1>.\Hello World.cpp(2112) : error C2433: '<<' : 'friend' not permitted
on data declarations
1>.\Hello World.cpp(2112) : error C2530: '<<' : references must be
initialized
1>.\Hello World.cpp(2112) : error C2238: unexpected token(s) preceding
';'
1>.\Hello World.cpp(2119) : error C2365: '<<' : redefinition; previous
definition was 'data variable'
1> .\Hello World.cpp(2112) : see declaration of '<<'
1>.\Hello World.cpp(2119) : error C2904: '<<' : name already used for
a template in the current scope
1> .\Hello World.cpp(2112) : see declaration of '<<'
1>.\Hello World.cpp(2112) : error C2143: syntax error : missing ';'
before '<'
1> .\Hello World.cpp(2124) : see reference to class template
instantiation 'S<T>' being compiled
1> with [... a long template instantiation error ... ]
<--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Why??

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