STL docs of October 94 describes a template function

  template<class T> T* value_type(const T*) { return (T*)0; }

which can be used to 'extract' the type of the items an iterator points
at. Iterators all have an 'operator T*' function.

If I have understood correctly it works as follows:

  template<class T> struct iterator {
 operator T*() { return 0; }
  };

  template<class I> void a_func(I i1, I i2) { __a_func(i1,i2,value_type(i1)); }

  template<class I, class T> void __a_func(I i1, I i2, T) { }

  iterator<int> i1, i2;
  .
  .

  a_func(i1, i2);

The call of a_func should generate a call to the template for

  __a_func(iterator<int> i1, iterator<int> i2, int)

This does not work for me with g++-2.6.3, it fails to instantiate __a_func.

I know the standard has been updated with regard to templates so
my question is: should this work according to todays C++ standard?

(If so, do you know when it will be available in g++?)

/jonas