C++ Primer Plus

Friend Classes

When might you want to make one class a friend to another? Let’s look at an example. Suppose you must program a simple simulation of a television and a remote control. You decide to define a Tv class representing a television and a Remote class representing a remote control. Clearly, there should be some sort of relationship between these classes, but what kind? A remote control is not a television and vice versa, so the is-a relationship of public inheritance doesn’t apply. Nor is either a component of the other, so the has-a relationship of containment or of private or protected inheritance doesn’t apply. What is true is that a remote control can modify the state of a television, and this suggests making the Remote class a friend ...