Furthermore no amount of documentation can protect you if the base module's implementation changes and it now needs a new private method that might intersect what some subclass is using.

You hit the head of the nail here. That's why you shouldn't use methods calls on "private methods" (update: private methods in the java sense, not just "non-public" methods)--to avoid that intersection with any subclass. Though, you alrady have a large code base that uses $self->_private you can document these methods (just that they exists and are called as methods with suffice) instead of patching every methods call. (And then you of course should stop using method invocation on private methods.)

ihb

Read argumentation in its context!

In reply to Re^6: Private Methods Meditation by ihb
in thread Private Methods Meditation by theAcolyte

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