Bug#293076: g++-3.3 uninformative error when base class missing

[Greg Kochanski <gpk@kochanski.org>]

Package: g++-3.3
Version: 1:3.3.5-5
Severity: normal


In the following program, the base class is missing.
G++ gives a wimpy error message:

bug.c:3: error: parse error before `{' token

It could do much better.   Syntactically, there aren't a lot of
options for 'z'.   A better error message might be something like

bug.c:3: error: parse error between ':' and '{'.   Expecting that "z" would be the name of a class.


Here's the code:

class y: z {
	public:
	};



-- System Information:
Debian Release: 3.1
  APT prefers testing
  APT policy: (500, 'testing')
Architecture: i386 (i686)
Kernel: Linux 2.6.8-2-686
Locale: LANG=C, LC_CTYPE=C (charmap=ANSI_X3.4-1968)

Versions of packages g++-3.3 depends on:
ii  gcc-3.3                     1:3.3.5-5    The GNU C compiler
ii  gcc-3.3-base                1:3.3.5-5    The GNU Compiler Collection (base 
ii  libc6                       2.3.2.ds1-20 GNU C Library: Shared libraries an
ii  libstdc++5-3.3-dev          1:3.3.5-5    The GNU Standard C++ Library v3 (d

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