Problem with creating list of types in C ++ 98 without macros

So, I am reading this article from Andrei Alexandrescu on how to create type lists, but the following code from the article does not compile with MSVC / GCC:

template <class H, class T>
struct typelist
{
    typedef H head;
    typedef T tail;
};

class null_typelist {};

template <class T1>
struct cons<T1, null_typelist, null_typelist,
    null_typelist>
{
    typedef typelist<T1, null_typelist> type;
};

template <class T1, class T2>
struct cons<T1, T2, null_typelist, null_typelist>
{
    typedef typelist<T1, typelist<T2,
        null_typelist> > type;
};

template <class T1, class T2, class T3>
struct cons<T1, T2, T3, null_typelist>
{
    typedef typelist<T1, typelist<T2, typelist<T3,
        null_typelist> > > type;
};

template <class T1, class T2, class T3, class T4>
struct cons
{
    typedef typelist<T1, typelist<T2, typelist<T3, 
        typelist<T4, null_typelist> > > > type;
};

typedef cons<float, double, long double>::type
    floating_point_types;

      

        
        
        
      

    

I am getting the following errors:

a.cpp:21:8: error: 'cons' is not a class template
 struct cons<T1, null_typelist, null_typelist,
        ^~~~
a.cpp:28:49: error: wrong number of template arguments (4, should be 1)
 struct cons<T1, T2, null_typelist, null_typelist>
                                                 ^
a.cpp:22:18: note: provided for 'template<class T1> struct cons'
     null_typelist>
                  ^
a.cpp:35:38: error: wrong number of template arguments (4, should be 1)
 struct cons<T1, T2, T3, null_typelist>
                                      ^
a.cpp:22:18: note: provided for 'template<class T1> struct cons'
     null_typelist>
                  ^
a.cpp:42:8: error: redeclared with 4 template parameters
 struct cons
        ^~~~
a.cpp:22:18: note: previous declaration 'template<class T1> struct cons' used 1
template parameter
     null_typelist>
                  ^
a.cpp:48:40: error: wrong number of template arguments (3, should be 1)
 typedef cons<float, double, long double>::type
                                        ^
a.cpp:22:18: note: provided for 'template<class T1> struct cons'
     null_typelist>
                  ^
a.cpp:49:5: error: expected initializer before 'floating_point_types'
     floating_point_types;
     ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

      

        
        
        
      

    

I need this in C ++ 98 for a library I am writing and something more like variadic templates or third party such as boost::mpl

is not an option.

So what's the problem? I don't really like template metaprogramming (yet) ...