My bad, I was being (very) inaccurate there. But I still believe my question possesses some validity (when stated correctly).
In my example #1 (in post #7), *this (a pointer to the left variable) will be the left-hand operand and *a (a pointer to the right variable) will be the right hand operator.
In my example #2, *a (a pointer to the left variable) will be the left-hand operand and *b (a pointer to the right variable) will be the right hand operator.
So, now that I am being more precise, what is the difference between #1 and #2? I presume the answer is what you gave in #8: ".. since as a member function, the left hand operand would be say, an object of the test class, not a pointer.", but I am not quite sure I understand that fully. Can you perhaps elaborate it a little?
whiteflags: I'm not quite sure I understand, but lets see what the response is to the above first.