Creating my own Iterators

/EDIT: I see, an own iterator is actually necessary here (I misread the question first). Still, I'm letting the code below stand because it can be useful in similar circumstances.

Is an own iterator actually necessary here? Perhaps it's sufficient to forward all required definitions to the container holding the actual Points:

// Your class `Piece`
class Piece {
private:
    Shape m_shape;

public:

    typedef std::vector<Point>::iterator iterator;
    typedef std::vector<Point>::const_iterator const_iterator;

    iterator begin() { return m_shape.container.begin(); }

    const_iterator begin() const { return m_shape.container.begin(); }

    iterator end() { return m_shape.container.end(); }

    const_iterator end() const { return m_shape.const_container.end(); }
}

This is assuming you're using a vector internally but the type can easily be adapted.

You should use Boost.Iterators. It contains a number of templates and concepts to implement new iterators and adapters for existing iterators. I have written an article about this very topic; it's in the December 2008 ACCU magazine. It discusses an (IMO) elegant solution for exactly your problem: exposing member collections from an object, using Boost.Iterators.

If you want to use the stl only, the Josuttis book has a chapter on implementing your own STL iterators.

Here Designing a STL like Custom Container is an excellent article which explains some of the basic concepts of how an STL like container class can be designed along with the iterator class for it. Reverse iterator (little tougher) though is left as an exercise :-)

HTH,