C2243’s Message Sucks Somehow

http://blogs.msdn.com/allen/archive/2008/05/05/c2243-s-message-sucks-somehow.aspx

I was not very comfortable with the message of C2243. See the below piece e.g.

class fubar {};
class foobar : private fubar {};

void func(const fubar & f) {}

int main () {
    foobar fb;
    func(fb);
    return 0;
}

CL tells me that the cast from pointer-to-foobar to const fubar & is not accessible however I did not put any pointer in place:
e:/Coding/TEMP>CL /EHsc /nologo /W4 inheritance.cpp
inheritance.cpp
inheritance.cpp(6) : warning C4100: 'f' : unreferenced formal parameter
inheritance.cpp(10) : error C2243: 'type cast' : conversion from 'foobar *' to 'const fubar &' exists, but is inaccessible

In comparison the GCC’s message appears to be more straightforward:
e:/Coding/TEMP>g++ -Wall -Wextra -o inheritance inheritance.cpp
inheritance.cpp:6: warning: unused parameter 'f'
inheritance.cpp: In function `int main()':
inheritance.cpp:10: error: `fubar' is an inaccessible base of `foobar'

P.S. At the time this article was being posting, just found a 2/3 bug in DevDiv addressing the exactly same thing...