(via an email discussion)
VC8 compiler: definition mis-interpreted as a function declaration
Posted by Microsoft on 2/6/2007 at 10:06 AM
Basically this is a known problem with Visual C++ – we just don’t handle this style of initialization when pointers are involved. I have looked at this issue a couple of times and have always given up as it proved just too difficult to shoehorn this feature into our compiler.So when we looked at this bug in triage yesterday we decided that it didn’t meet the bar – mostly because of the difficulty and also because there is a workaround – use the ‘=’ form of initialization (which also, in my opinion, has the advantage of being clearer).
Jonathan Caves
Visual C++ Compiler Team
It must be nice to be able to use the “too difficult” excuse…