member access

Hi,

consider the Shape class from the FAQ:

class Shape{

   public:
     Shape();
     virtual ~Shape();
     virtual void draw() = 0;
};

Now we have several derived shapes:

class Rectangle : public Shape{

   public:
     Rectangle();

     void draw();

   private:
     double a; // width
     double b; // height
};

class Circle{

   public:
    Circle();
    void draw();

   private:
     double r; // radius
};

// more derived shapes follow

For each shape I would need to access its member variables. For this one
     can add member functions in each derived class, for instance,
something like this in the Rectangle class:

  double get_width() const
  {
    return a;
  }

  For a Shape derived class which would have many member variables, I
find it rather annoying and not very elegant to implement one get/set
member function for each member variable.

   Is there any other way to gain access to the derived classes data,
(except making its member variables public)

Greetings,

Vali