c++/cli expose internal members to managed classes only

Question

Assuming I have a c++ unmanaged class that looks like this

#include "note.h"
class chord
{
private:
    note* _root;   // or, as in my real class: std::shared_ptr<note> _root;
    // _third, _fifth, _seventh, etc
public:
    someClass(const note n1, const note n2, const note n3);  // constructor takes some of these notes to make a chord

    std::shared_ptr<note> root() const;   // returns ptr to root of the chord
    std::string name() const;  // returns the name of this chord

}

now, I know that I will need to wrap both of these classes into managed classes in cli. But the question is, how do I pass the private pointer to the native class to the constructor?

As it stands, the Note* _src is private inside noteWrapper. but native Chord() requires the native Note object. so chordWrapper is unable to access noteWrappers _src, to pass to constructor. How can I accomplish this, without exposing internal members to .net?

EDIT**

// assume noteWrapper is already defined, with Note* _src as private
public ref class chordWrapper
{
     private:
     Chord* _src;
     public:
     chordWrapper(noteWrapper^ n1, noteWrapper^ n2, noteWrapper^ n3)
     {
          _src = new Chord(*n1->_src, *n2->_src, *n2->_src); // _src is inaccessible
     }
}

The above is not possible because chordWrapper has no access to that internal member. Since friend is also not supported, I do not know what else I can do to hide the internal members from .net, and expose them to the cli classes.

what is the appropriate way to handle this?

Answer 1

internal members are in same scope then private members in C++/CLI. it´s the same as the C# internal modifier. IMHO i think that classes/structs without visibility modifier will be interpreted as internal by default?

public ref class noteWrapper
{
    Note* _src;
}

is in the same scope like

public ref class noteWrapper
{
private:
    Note* _src;
}

but

public ref class noteWrapper
{
internal:
    Note* _src;
}

is a private member shared additionally with the cli library

Answer 2

You can use the 'internal' keyword to only share that with the cli library, not .Net clients. eg

public ref class noteWrapper
{
internal:
    Note* _src;
}