MSVC 2008 error 'Type' is not a struct (although it is)

Question

The following MWE compiles on gcc 4.8.2 but not on MSVC 2008 (company policy)

struct B
{
};

struct A
{
    typedef B Handler;
};

template<typename T>
struct Foo
{
    typedef typename T::Handler  Type;
};

template<typename T>
struct Bar
{
    friend struct Foo<T>::Type;     // MSVC 2008 does not like this
    typedef typename Foo<T>::Type   Foo;
};

int main() 
{
}

MSVC 2008 error

error C2649: 'Foo<T>::Type' : is not a 'struct'

Is this a compiler bug or am I doing something illegal here? More importantly is there a fix?

Answer 1

Remove the struct keyword and replace it with typename:

template<typename T>
struct Bar
{
    friend typename Foo<T>::Type;     
    typedef typename Foo<T>::Type   Foo;
};

Answer 2

It seems to be invalid. [class.friend]/3:

A friend declaration that does not declare a function shall have one of the following forms:
friend elaborated-type-specifier;
friend simple-type-specifier;
friend typename-specifier;

However, there is an important restriction on elaborated-type-specifiers: [dcl.type.elab]/2:

If the identifier resolves to a typedef-name […] the elaborated-type-specifier is ill-formed.

In that respect, GCC and Clang are wrong and, surprisingly, VC++ is right.
You can make use of the third bullet of the first quote and use a typename-specifier.

friend typename Foo<T>::Type;