Is it appropriate to access a class’ private members by casting it to a void pointer and then to a struct?
I don’t think I have permissions to modify the class that contains the data members that I need to access. I don’t want to take a risk accessing the data members in an indirect way if it is not ethical.
EDIT: Had to edit this further… I am pretty sure the class wouldn’t be modified, so it’s ok to that extent… my only concern is, if the person who coded that class gets to know of this, it might not go down well with him :(.
‘Never say never’. I’m sure somewhere in the universe, there’s a situation that will force you to have to do this…
But I certainly would cringe if I had to do it. You truly need get lots of opinions on your situation before pulling the trigger. Can you describe your specific situation and maybe we could see if it makes sense or what better alternatives might exist?
In response to comment/question– Define ‘permissions’ — institutional permission? That sounds like not a programming problem, but something to talk to whoever is asserting said permission. Maybe this is more of a political issue than a technical one? Again, I think we need more specifics–even if it was somewhat about the politics of the situation. That may or may not be deemed out of scope for the website, however.