[Operator Overloading] Accessing privates [inside]

Hallo All.

I have a quick question that tickles me. Its about operator overloading in Classes. I will demonstrate with a code snippet. I hope that someone will be able to clear it up a bit for me.

<snip>

Code:

class rectangle {
// Rectangle Object, used to store the length and width of a rect
// and compute it's area. Set functions included.

        private:
                float itsLength; // Rectangle length
                float itsWidth; // Rectangle width
        public:
                float getArea(); // function to get area of Rectangle
                void setLength(float pLength); // function to set Length
                void setWidth(float pWidth); // function to set Width
                float operator+(rectangle &pRect); // The operator overloading function.
};

...
...

float rectangle::operator+(rectangle &pRect) {
        return  getArea() + pRect.itsLength * pRect.itsWidth; // This is just my demonstration. Normally it would not be done like this.
}

int main(int argc, char* argv[])
{
        rectangle r1, r2; // Create 2 instances of class rectangle
        r1.setLength(10); // Set r1's length to 10
        r1.setWidth(5); // Set r1's width to 5

        r2.setLength(5); // Set r2's length to 5
        r2.setWidth(2); // Set r2's width to 2;

        float total = r1 + r2; // Operator overloading comes into play.
        cout << "Total == " << total; // print total to screen.
        getch();
        return 0;
}

</snip>

Now, it shoes clearly that in the function rectangle::operator+(rectangle &pRect) that I access the private members of the referenced object &pRect.

Altho this is a nice feature to have, doesn't it defeat the purpose of private members. I mean, private members are supposed to be private ? Or am I missing the point here ?

I would be greatful if anyone can please explain to me why this is possible, and if there is any specific reason for it being so :)

Thanks in advance.

Regards
PHaRaoH

They are private sure, but as its an object of type rectange that's accessing those private variables, its permissable....

If you had another object...say square...then that object would not benefit from this privilege

Mmmm'k.

Thanks alot.