Error with friend method

I was compiling an old programming assignment about manipulating polynomials represented as linked list of its terms and I ran into a plethora of unfamiliar errors. I originally used Visual Studio Express to do the assignment, where it successfully compiled and ran, if I remember correctly. Recently, however, I installed Ubuntu on an old Thinkpad and decided to give gcc/g++ a test run. Unfortunately, it failed to compile and gave me some strange errors on two lines where I declare a method a friend of the Term class. Here are the errors and relevant part of Poly.h.

In file included from assign7.cpp:9:
Poly.h:20: error: expected ‘,’ or ‘...’ before ‘&’ token
Poly.h:20: error: ISO C++ forbids declaration of ‘Poly’ with no type
Poly.h:21: error: expected ‘,’ or ‘...’ before ‘&’ token
Poly.h:21: error: ISO C++ forbids declaration of ‘Poly’ with no type

Code:

---

/*


[Removed personal info]


*/

#include <iostream>
#include <string>
#include <sstream>
#include <math.h>
using namespace std;

/* A class representing a term of a polynomial as a node in a linked list. Contains value of coefficient,
degree, and a pointer to the next list */
class Term
{
        friend class Poly;
        friend ostream& operator<<(ostream& out, const Poly& p);  //Line 20
        friend istream& operator>>(istream& in, const Poly& p);      //Line 21
public:
        Term(float c, int d) { coefficient = c; degree = d; next_term = 0; }
        Term() { coefficient = 0; degree = 0; next_term = 0; }
        const float evaluate(float x) const { return ( coefficient * pow(x,degree) ); }
        const Term operator+(const Term& b) const;
        const Term operator*(const Term& b) const;
        const bool operator==(const Term& b) const;
        const bool operator!=(const Term& b) const;
private:
        float coefficient;
        int degree;
        Term *next_term;
};

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Where is the class Poly defined? Is it before Term? If it's after, you might need to either have Poly appear first, or just tell the compiler it's coming:

Code:

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class Poly;

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...somewhere before Term.

I'm not sure if the "friend class Poly" is significant enough to count... perhaps it was for MSVC++...

That did the trick, thanks a lot.

So should one normally declare/prototype classes like one does with methods?

A class may be declared 'friend' without its (forward) declaration, but when you use it as a function argument, it may not. Note that the 'friend' declaration tells something about the class "Term", not about the class 'Poly'.

This is exactly what the second message for both lines is telling you:

Quote:

---

ISO C++ forbids declaration of ‘Poly’ with no type

---

it does not recognize "Poly" as a type but as a variable.

Oh, alright, that helps. Thanks.