Is it possible to subclass a C struct in C++ and use pointers to the struct in C code?

Question

Is there a side effect in doing this:

C code:

struct foo {
      int k;
};

int ret_foo(const struct foo* f){ 
    return f.k; 
}

C++ c

Answer 1

This is perfectly legal, though it might be confusing for other programmers.

You can use inheritance to extend C-structs with methods and constructors.

Sample :

struct POINT { int x, y; }
class CPoint : POINT
{
public:
    CPoint( int x_, int y_ ) { x = x_; y = y_; }

    const CPoint& operator+=( const POINT& op2 )
    { x += op2.x; y += op2.y; return *this; }

    // etc.
};

Extending structs might be "more" evil, but is not something you are forbidden to do.