[Voted into WP at April 2005 meeting.]

Proposed resolution (October, 2004):

Add the following as a new paragraph after 9.9 [namespace.udecl] paragraph 5:

A using-declaration shall not name a namespace;

Notes from the March 2004 meeting:

We agree that it should be an error.

Can a using-declaration be used to import a namespace?

namespace my_namespace{
  namespace my_namespace2 {
    int function_of_my_name_space(){ return 2;}
  }
}

int main (){
  using  ::my_namespace::my_namespace2;
  return my_namespace2::function_of_my_name_space();
}

Several popular compilers give an error on this, but there doesn't seem to be anything in 9.9 [namespace.udecl] that prohibits it. It should be noted that the user can get the same effect by using a namespace alias:

  namespace my_namespace2 = ::my_namespace::my_namespace2;