In C++ there is no notion of an entire class having an access specifier the way that there is in Java or C#. If a piece of code has visibility of a class, it can reference the name of that class and manipulate it. That said, there are a few restrictions on this. Just because … Read more
Private members are only accessible within the class defining them. Protected members are accessible in the class that defines them and in classes that inherit from that class. Edit: Both are also accessible by friends of their class, and in the case of protected members, by friends of their derived classes. Edit 2: Use whatever … Read more
In chapter 3.5 , it illustrates the protected modifier with the following words: More precisely, beyond being accessible within the class itself and to code within the same package, a protected member can also be accessed from a class through object references that are of at least the same type as the class that is, … Read more