Call a non-const member function from a const member function

Question

I would like to know if its possible to call a non-const member function from a const member function. In the example below First gives a compiler error. I understand why it

Answer 1

iterators are similar in this and make an interesting study.

const iterators are often the base for 'non const' iterators, and you will often find const_cast<>() or C style casts used to discard const from the base class with accessors in the child.

Edit: Comment was

I have a zip iterator where the const one inherits from the non-const

This would generally be the wrong inheritence structure (if your saying what I think you are), the reason being that children should not be less restrictive than parents.

say you had some algorithm taking your zip iterator, would it be appropriate to pass a const iterator to a non const ?

if you had a const container, could only ask it for a const iterator, but then the const iterator is derived from an iterator so you just use the features on the parent to have non const access.

Here is a quick outline of suggested inheritence following the traditional stl model

class ConstIterator: 
    public std::_Bidit< myType, int, const myType *, const mType & >
{
  reference operator*() const { return m_p; }
}

class Iterator : public ConstIterator 
{
  typedef ConstIterator _Mybase;
  // overide the types provided by ConstIterator
  typedef myType * pointer;
  typedef myType & reference;

  reference operator*() const
  { 
    return ((reference)**(_Mybase *)this);
  }
}

typedef std::reverse_iterator ConstReverseIterator;
typedef std::reverse_iterator ReverseIterator;