First quote :
In order for a property ("Age" in the original example) to be able to reference other properties/members of its containing class, it needs a pointer to the object containing it.
Second quote :
If the setter/getter of property A needs to maintain invariants on other properties then I fail to see how your property system would handle it.
Hello, You might want to give a glimpse at this previous thread : "[boost] [property] interest in C# like properties for C++?". 1/ you will see an interesting use of the defect 45 (<=> subclasses can access private members of parent class). More traditionnally, a friend might also have been used. 2/ no 'directly' stored pointer (recalculated at each access). 3/ lots of discussions on the subject. http://lists.boost.org/Archives/boost/2009/10/157143.php Best Regards, Pierre Morcello