diff --git a/TODO b/TODO
index dbab1cf4..ee95fb94 100644
--- a/TODO
+++ b/TODO
@@ -5,7 +5,19 @@
 
 - need to add [] overload to Ruby bindings
 
-- overload (x, y) to be getpoint()?
+- add
+
+	VImage &operator[]( int index ) 
+		throw( VError )
+	{ 
+		VImage result = this->extract_band( index ); 
+
+		return( result );
+	}
+
+  to cpp bindings
+
+- overload (x, y) to be getpoint()? c++/py/rb
 
 
 
diff --git a/cplusplus/include/vips/VImage8.h b/cplusplus/include/vips/VImage8.h
index 323062cf..7489d232 100644
--- a/cplusplus/include/vips/VImage8.h
+++ b/cplusplus/include/vips/VImage8.h
@@ -1263,12 +1263,6 @@ public:
 		return( a * -1 );
 	}
 
-	friend VImage operator[]( VImage a, int index ) 
-		throw( VError )
-	{ 
-		return( a.extract_band( index ) ); 
-	}
-
 };
 
 VIPS_NAMESPACE_END