Template meta programming code compiles on MSVC but not on G++

Question

This code compiles on MSVC but not on G++ :

template
class B
{
public:
 static void SomeMethod()
 {
 A::SomeMethod();
 }
};

class A
{
public:
 static void SomeMethod();
};

void test()
{
 B::SomeMethod();
}

The error with g++ is :

test.cpp: In static member function "static void B::SomeMethod()":
test.cpp:7:3: error: "A" has not been declared

Is there is a option to indicate to g++ to evaluate the template functions only when a specialization is called, and not before ?

Answer 1

The C++ standard is very specific on which names in a template definition are bound when that definition is initially parsed vs. which are bound only after the template parameters are given.

You are asking for the compiler to violate those rules.

I expect gcc has no such option. I'm not 100% certain it has no such option, but if there were such an option, I would advise against using it.

When MSVC compiles incorrect code, that is not a good justification for leaving your code incorrect.

Comments

Also, MS recently committed to fixing their compiler to correctly implement two-phase lookup in templates, so even MSVC will reject the code at some point, so it's better to fix the code.