In some languages (eg Ruby) this isn't a good reason since it is trivial to implement get/set methods that will be visible and manipulatable outside of the class exactly how the old attribute was. So you can start with every property public, and then fix ones which in retrospect shouldn't have been. So you don't worry about it until you have to.

You can do the same in Perl if you are willing to retrofit a tie on an existing class. (Admittedly at a considerable speed hit.) This is sufficiently obscure and confusing that the decision to do it is certainly making demands on the maintainance programmer.

I don't know Java well enough to know whether this strategy is possible there, but I strongly doubt it. (Corrections or confirmation welcome.)

In reply to Re: Re: Re: This is why I use Perl by tilly
in thread This is why I use Perl by pg

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