Hm, now I can't really comment without looking egotistical. But EFH asked me to comment, so here I am. I'm pleased he has such a high opinion of me, but I'm pretty sure there are several other regular posters who are at least as qualified. Including (or especially) Dr. Friedman-Hill himself.
Anyway...
Thus far, I don't see any reason for the error thrown by Sun's compiler. I would say it looks like a bug. I don't see any good justification for it - it looks like Sun screwed up, period. I will continue to look into it, but so far, I'm not seeing any justification for the behavior of Sun's compiler here.
If anyone else reading this has any further insight, please share it.
[ June 12, 2007: Message edited by: Jim Yingst ]