Thread: MSVC 7.1: Template specialisation??

I'm fiddling with template specialisation (it's been on my list of things to do for weeks) and found a little tutorial on cplusplus.com but MSVC 7.1 doesn't seem to like it:

Code:

template< typename T > class Container
{
public:
    Container( T& val )
    {
        m_Value = val;
    }

    ~Container()
    {}

    void    Increment();

private:
    T   m_Value;
};

template< typename T > void Container< T >::Increment()
{
    ++m_Value;
}

// Specialisation of Container class
template<> class Container< char >
{
public:
    Container( T& val )
    {
        m_Value = val;
    }

    ~Container()
    {}

    void    Uppercase();

private:
    char    m_Value;
};

template<> void Container< char >::Uppercase()
{
    return toupper(m_Value);
}

Am I doing something wrong? I thought it was just MSVC 5 that didn't like this.

EDIT: The errors:

Code:

c:\Documents and Settings\lee\Desktop\sandbox\sandbox.cpp(122) : error C2143: syntax error : missing ')' before '&'
c:\Documents and Settings\lee\Desktop\sandbox\sandbox.cpp(122) : error C2143: syntax error : missing ';' before '&'
c:\Documents and Settings\lee\Desktop\sandbox\sandbox.cpp(122) : error C2460: 'Container<char>::T' : uses 'Container<char>', which is being defined
        c:\Documents and Settings\lee\Desktop\sandbox\sandbox.cpp(134) : see declaration of 'Container<char>'
c:\Documents and Settings\lee\Desktop\sandbox\sandbox.cpp(122) : error C2059: syntax error : ')'
c:\Documents and Settings\lee\Desktop\sandbox\sandbox.cpp(122) : error C2501: 'Container<char>::val' : missing storage-class or type specifiers
c:\Documents and Settings\lee\Desktop\sandbox\sandbox.cpp(124) : error C2065: 'val' : undeclared identifier
c:\Documents and Settings\lee\Desktop\sandbox\sandbox.cpp(124) : error C2864: 'm_Value' : only const static integral data members can be initialized inside a class or struct
c:\Documents and Settings\lee\Desktop\sandbox\sandbox.cpp(124) : error C2501: 'Container<char>::m_Value' : missing storage-class or type specifiers
c:\Documents and Settings\lee\Desktop\sandbox\sandbox.cpp(127) : error C2588: '::~Container' : illegal global destructor
c:\Documents and Settings\lee\Desktop\sandbox\sandbox.cpp(132) : error C2059: syntax error : 'private'
c:\Documents and Settings\lee\Desktop\sandbox\sandbox.cpp(134) : error C2059: syntax error : '}'
c:\Documents and Settings\lee\Desktop\sandbox\sandbox.cpp(134) : error C2143: syntax error : missing ';' before '}'
c:\Documents and Settings\lee\Desktop\sandbox\sandbox.cpp(134) : error C2059: syntax error : '}'
c:\Documents and Settings\lee\Desktop\sandbox\sandbox.cpp(136) : error C2143: syntax error : missing ';' before '<'
c:\Documents and Settings\lee\Desktop\sandbox\sandbox.cpp(136) : error C2182: 'Container' : illegal use of type 'void'
c:\Documents and Settings\lee\Desktop\sandbox\sandbox.cpp(136) : error C2373: 'Container' : redefinition; different type modifiers
        c:\Documents and Settings\lee\Desktop\sandbox\sandbox.cpp(127) : see declaration of 'Container'
c:\Documents and Settings\lee\Desktop\sandbox\sandbox.cpp(136) : error C2988: unrecognizable template declaration/definition
c:\Documents and Settings\lee\Desktop\sandbox\sandbox.cpp(136) : error C2059: syntax error : '<'
c:\Documents and Settings\lee\Desktop\sandbox\sandbox.cpp(142) : error C2143: syntax error : missing ';' before '{'
c:\Documents and Settings\lee\Desktop\sandbox\sandbox.cpp(142) : error C2447: '{' : missing function header (old-style formal list?)

Just a guess...is line 122 this line:

Code:

template<> class Container< char >
{
public:
    Container( T& val ) //line 122?
    {

You should probably change the T to char. Beyond that, I'm not sure.

Tried it earlier and it didn't make a difference IIRC (too busy to check right now).
I'm not likely to use it very much so I'll moan about it again when if I do

All right...weekend's over, so I got my C++ compiler back. This compiled on 8.0; I can't guarantee that it'll work for 7.1.

Code:

// Specialisation of Container class
template<> class Container< char >
{
public:
    Container( char& val )
    {
        m_Value = val;
    }

    ~Container()
    {}

    int    Uppercase();

private:
    char    m_Value;
};

//You can't specialize twice.  The above declaration
//already says that this function is specialized.
int Container< char >::Uppercase()
{
    return toupper(m_Value);
}