Re: static template member

Hi all,

The program below illustrates my problem. It compiles on VC8, also on
GCC 3.4.4. (cygwin special) and on GCC 4.1.0 20060304 (Red Hat 4.1.0-3)

However it does not link with GCCs: the static symbol is not found. I
can make it link by uncommenting the second commented line, but then VC8
will refuse to work. I do not understand why one would need the two
lines with template<> and template to make it work. Looks a bit shamanic
to me.

VC8 works as it is and also when the first commented line is used
instead of template<> ...

My questions are:
Who is right: GCC or VC8?
How do I write such a program in standard-compliant way that works with
both compilers? (

I understand that good old ifdef will do :-)
but ...

Artem

//-------------------------------------------------------------------
template<class T>
struct foo
{
        int method(int x) { return 0; }
        static foo<T> the_instance;
};

struct bar {
        int method() {
            return foo<bar>::the_instance.method(1);
        }
};

// foo<bar> foo<bar>::the_instance;

//template foo<bar> foo<bar>::the_instance;
template<> foo<bar> foo<bar>::the_instance;