Object oriented design suggestion

Question

Here is my code:

class Soldier {
public:
   Soldier(const string &name, const Gun &gun);
   string getName();
private:
   Gun gun;
   string name;
};

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Answer 1

If you expose gun, you allow things beyond the member functions of the Gun, which is probably not a good idea:

soldier.gun = anotherGun; // where did you drop your old gun?

If you use getGun(), the calls look a little ugly, but you can add functions to Gun without modifying Soldier.

If you encapsulate the functions (which I recommend) you can modify the Gun or introduce other (derived) classes of Gun without changing the interface to Soldier.