How can I make compile time assertions without C++11

Question

In a job interview, I was asked to write a metafunction that determined whether a type was a pointer. This is what I presented:

template 
struc         


        

Answer 1

In your case

template  struct assert;
template <> struct assert {};

would have solved the problem:

assert::value>();     // valid
assert::value>();    // valid

assert::value>();      // compilation error:
                                        // use of incomplete class