Why can't I override the default copy constructor and assignment operator with template versions in C++

Question

I asked this question about overloading the copy constructor and assignment operator with template versions and considering the confusion involving around the question (since it seems to be a compiler bug), I thought I'd try with only template copy constructor and template assignment operator to see what happens. But they are completely ignored by the compiler.

struct BaseClass
{
public:
  BaseClass() {}

  template<typename T>
  BaseClass(const T& a_other)
  {
    int i = 0; // for break point which is not hit
  }

  template<typename T>
  BaseClass& operator= (const T& a_other)
  {
    int i = 0; // for break point which is not hit
    return *this;
  }

};

struct MyClass : public BaseClass
{
};

int main()
{
  MyClass i, j;
  i = j;

  return 0;
}

Why can't I over-ride the defaults with template versions (I suspect the answer will be the defaults are a better match but I would like the template versions to act as defaults as well)? And is there anything I can do to make sure the template versions are called instead of the defaults?

Answer 1

template<typename T>
BaseClass(const T& a_other) 

First of all, this is not a copy-constructor. It is rather a templated constructor.

The copy-constructor should be this:

BaseClass(const BaseClass & a_other)

Notice the difference?

Note that the templated constructor doesn't define copy-constructor. The compiler will still generate a default copy-constructor for you, instead of instantiating the templated constructor.

Same argument for copy-assignment.