> > Could someone please clarify whether the following code (from [1]), > > which GCC trunk rejects, is valid (i.e. the error is a bug) or invalid? > > I can't answer this question, but it will compile if you use > std::common_type<>, from <type_traits> to calculate the return > type.... e.g.: > > [snip] > > I can imagine that the reason your version might not compile is > because you're trying to use the multi-parameter version of sum, in > "decltype (t + sum (p...))" before the multi-parameter version of sum > has been fully declared (as the decltype is part of that declaration); > I dunno whether the compiler is supposed to handle that or not... I am aware that there are workarounds. I would like to know whether my version is valid C++11 or not. The use case that made me search for this issue (and thus find that example on stackoverflow) was the following: template <typename> class foo {}; template <int N> auto f() -> foo<decltype(f<N - 1>())>; template <> int f<0>(); The idea here is that f<0>() returns int, f<1>() returns foo<int>, f<2>() returns foo<foo<int>>, etc. The errors here are different, so I'm not sure if this is the exact same issue: test.cpp:4:26: error: 'f' was not declared in this scope test.cpp:4:26: error: 'f' was not declared in this scope test.cpp:4:37: error: template argument 1 is invalid test.cpp:7:6: error: expected initializer before '<' token Does anyone know whether this should be valid? The workaround for this is more complicated (you need a separate metafunction that computes the return type). Thanks, Nate