friend ref class?

Question

I have a managed class `Parser` and an unmanaged class `CParser`. The former is exposed from a DLL for managed clients (C# world). The core functionality is in the unmanaged class `CParser`. Since both are in the same DLL, and there is a one-to-one relationship, the managed class can access the unmanaged class. The problem is that I want `Parser` to access all members of `CParser`. I don't want to use `public:` for all members, nor I am willing to have setters and getters. Thus, I just placed `friend` keyword: ``` class CParser { ... friend ref class Parser; // C2144 }; // public ref class Parser{}; ``` I get error `C2144`, probably for obvious reason that unmanaged C++ doesn't understand `ref` keyword. If I remove `ref` keyword, the managed compiler (compiling `Parser`), would complain with error C2872: Ambigious Symbol. It is also known that `internal:` is not applicable for unmanged C++. How to make `Parser` a friend of `CParser` ? EDIT: This question was already here, but probably…

Accepted Answer

You can't use `friend` in that case. The only way I have found to accomplish it is to declare another friend which gives free access to the private members, but is defined within the source file of the other class and thus cannot be used by any other code.

This is ugly in its own way but at least the ugliness is hidden in the cpp file, and the public interface of the native class remains relatively clean.

NativeClass.h

```
class NativeClass
{
public:
        void PublicStuff();
        struct DispatchHelper;
protected:
        friend DispatchHelper;
        void NonPublicStuff();
};
```

RefClass.h

```
ref class RefClass
{
public:
    void ManagedCode();
};
```

RefClass.cpp

```
struct NativeClass::DispatchHelper
{
    static void DoStuff(NativeClass* p) { p->NonPublicStuff(); }
}

void RefClass::ManagedCode()
{
    NativeClass::DispatchHelper::DoStuff(pNativeClass);
}
```

friend ref class?

Solution

Problem