Inherit constructors from template base class without repeating template arguments?

Question

How do I inherit constructors from a template base class without repeating the template arguments (and without using macros):

For example, this does not work (using GCC 4.8):

template <typename T>
struct base {};

template <typename U>
struct derived : base<U> {
    using base::base;
};

It does work if I repeat the template arguments of the base class:

template <typename T>
struct base {};

template <typename U>
struct derived : base<U> {
    using base<U>::base;
};

The problem is that "U" might be something very complex and that is annoying and error prone to repeat. For example, here is one of my original motivating examples:

#include <boost/multi_index_container.hpp>
#include <boost/multi_index/key_extractors.hpp>
#include <boost/multi_index/ordered_index.hpp>
#include <boost/multi_index/sequenced_index.hpp>

using namespace boost::multi_index;

struct as_list_tag {};
struct as_set_tag  {};

template <typename T>
struct unique_list : multi_index_container <
    T,
    indexed_by <
        sequenced<tag<as_list_tag>>,
        ordered_unique<tag<as_set_tag>, identity<T>>
    >
> {
    using multi_index_container <
        T,
        indexed_by <
            sequenced<tag<as_list_tag>>,
            ordered_unique<tag<as_set_tag>, identity<T>>
        >
    >
    ::multi_index_container;
    using as_list = as_list_tag;
    using as_set  = as_set_tag ;
};

I ended up working around this by using a macro:

#define MAKE_UNIQUE_LIST(template_params...)\
template <typename T>\
struct unique_list : multi_index_container template_params\
{\
    using multi_index_container template_params ::multi_index_container;\
    using as_list = as_list_tag;\
    using as_set  = as_set_tag ;\
};

MAKE_UNIQUE_LIST(<
    T,
    indexed_by <
        sequenced<tag<as_list_tag>>,
        ordered_unique<tag<as_set_tag>, identity<T>>
    >
>)
#undef MAKE_UNIQUE_LIST

Is there a better way to approach this? Some syntax trick I am missing? =)

Answer 1

Easy:

template <typename U, typename thebase=base<U>>
struct derived : thebase {
    using thebase::thebase;
};

The downside is that it changes the external interface of the template to have two template arguments. You can solve that like this:

template <typename U, typename thebase=base<U>>
struct derived_impl : thebase {
    using thebase::thebase;
};
template<typename U>
using derived = derived_impl<U>;

Answer 2

It isn't perfect, but you could have a class that generates your type:

template <typename T>
struct unique_list_base {
    typedef multi_index_container <
        T,
        indexed_by <
            sequenced<tag<as_list_tag>>,
            ordered_unique<tag<as_set_tag>, identity<T>>
        >
    > type;
};

template <typename T>
struct unique_list : unique_list_base<T>::type {
    using unique_list_base<T>::type::multi_index_container;
    using as_list = as_list_tag;
    using as_set  = as_set_tag ;
};