A minimal demonstration of what an point iterator in Surfacemesh should be able to do.

gistfile1.txt

#include <CGAL/Simple_cartesian.h>
typedef CGAL::Simple_cartesian<double> Kernel;
typedef Kernel::FT Scalar;
typedef Kernel::Point_3 Point;
typedef Kernel::Vector_3 Vector;

#include <CGAL/Surface_mesh.h>
typedef CGAL::Surface_mesh<Point> Surfacemesh;

#include <CGAL/centroid.h>
#include <CGAL/bounding_box.h>

// uses boost iterators
#include <boost/ref.hpp>

template <class SM>
struct V2P {
    typedef Point result_type;

    boost::reference_wrapper<const SM> sm;
    V2P( SM& sm ) : sm( sm ) {}

    const Point& operator()( typename SM::Vertex_index v ) const { return sm.get().point( v ); }
};

int main( int argc, char* argv[] )
{
    Surfacemesh s;

    typedef boost::transform_iterator<V2P<Surfacemesh>, Surfacemesh::Vertex_iterator> Point_iterator;
    V2P<Surfacemesh> v2p( s );

    Point_iterator b = boost::make_transform_iterator( s.vertices().begin(), v2p );
    Point_iterator e = boost::make_transform_iterator( s.vertices().end(), v2p );

    CGAL::centroid( b, e );        // succeeds
    CGAL::bounding_box( b, e );    // fails

    return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}