[c++] error: use of deleted function

I've been working on some C++ code that a friend has written and I get the following error that I have never seen before when compiling with gcc4.6:

error: use of deleted function

‘GameFSM_<std::array<C, 2ul> >::hdealt::hdealt()’ is implicitly deleted because the default definition would be ill-formed:
uninitialized non-static const member ‘const h_t FlopPokerGameFSM_<std::array<C, 2ul> >::hdealt::h’

Edit: This comes from a part of the code using boost MSM: Boost Webpage

Edit2: There is no = delete() used anywhere in the sourcecode.

Generally speaking, what does this error mean? What should I be looking for when this type of error occurs?

In the current C++0x standard you can explicitly disable default constructors with the delete syntax, e.g.

MyClass() = delete;

Gcc 4.6 is the first version to support this syntax, so maybe that is the problem...

You are using a function, which is marked as deleted.
Eg:

int doSomething( int ) = delete;

The =delete is a new feature of C++0x. It means the compiler should immediately stop compiling and complain "this function is deleted" once the user use such function.

If you see this error, you should check the function declaration for =delete.

To know more about this new feature introduced in C++0x, check this out.

I encountered this error when inheriting from an abstract class and not implementing all of the pure virtual methods in my subclass.

Switching from gcc 4.6 to gcc 4.8 resolved this for me.

gcc 4.6 supports a new feature of deleted functions, where you can write

hdealt() = delete;

to disable the default constructor.

Here the compiler has obviously seen that a default constructor can not be generated, and =delete'd it for you.