C++: typedefing and nested class issue

Question

I have:

class ThreadPool
{
public:
    ....
private:
    struct TP_Thread: public Thread_t
    {
        ....
    };
    std::vector<std::tr1::shared_ptr<TP_Thread> >   m_threads;
   .....
};

I wanna do something like:

typedef std::tr1::shared_ptr<TP_Thread> shpThread;

to shorten the writing in the class definitions. Problem is I either get pointer to incomplete type (because of forward declaration before the class and typedef the public section) or trying to access a private member of ThreadPool (in the case I'm trying to typedef it outside the class). How can I typedef this so I can use it freely during implementations?

Answer 1

Why not including your typedef in a public section of the class:

class ThreadPool
{
public:
    ....
private:
    struct TP_Thread: public Thread_t
    {
        ....
    };
public:
    typedef std::tr1::shared_ptr<TP_Thread> Shp;
    ...

then use ThreadPool::Shp in your code.