Why can't I inherit from int in C++?

Question

I\'d love to be able to do this:

class myInt : public int
{

};

Why can\'t I?

Why would I want to? Stronger typing. For example, I

Answer 1

This answer is an implementation of UncleBens answer

put in Primitive.hpp

#pragma once

template
class Primitive {
protected:
    T value;

public:

    // we must type cast to child to so
    // a += 3 += 5 ... and etc.. work the same way
    // as on primitives
    Child &childRef(){
        return *((Child*)this);
    }

    // you can overload to give a default value if you want
    Primitive(){}
    explicit Primitive(T v):value(v){}

    T get(){
        return value;
    }

    #define OP(op) Child &operator op(Child const &v){\
        value op v.value; \
        return childRef(); \
    }

    // all with equals
    OP(+=)
    OP(-=)
    OP(*=)
    OP(/=)
    OP(<<=)
    OP(>>=)
    OP(|=)
    OP(^=)
    OP(&=)
    OP(%=)

    #undef OP

    #define OP(p) Child operator p(Child const &v){\
        Child other = childRef();\
        other p ## = v;\
        return other;\
    }

    OP(+)
    OP(-)
    OP(*)
    OP(/)
    OP(<<)
    OP(>>)
    OP(|)
    OP(^)
    OP(&)
    OP(%)

    #undef OP


    #define OP(p) bool operator p(Child const &v){\
        return value p v.value;\
    }

    OP(&&)
    OP(||)
    OP(<)
    OP(<=)
    OP(>)
    OP(>=)
    OP(==)
    OP(!=)

    #undef OP

    Child operator +(){return Child(value);}
    Child operator -(){return Child(-value);}
    Child &operator ++(){++value; return childRef();}
    Child operator ++(int){
        Child ret(value);
        ++value;
        return childRef();
    }
    Child operator --(int){
        Child ret(value);
        --value;
        return childRef();
    }

    bool operator!(){return !value;}
    Child operator~(){return Child(~value);}

};

Example:

#include "Primitive.hpp"
#include 

using namespace std;
class Integer : public Primitive {
public:
    Integer(){}
    Integer(int a):Primitive(a) {}

};
int main(){
    Integer a(3);
    Integer b(8);

    a += b;
    cout << a.get() << "\n";
    Integer c;

    c = a + b;
    cout << c.get() << "\n";

    cout << (a > b) << "\n";
    cout << (!b) << " " << (!!b) << "\n";

}