The way to hide variables and methods is not to document them. Programmers using a module are not expected to read the code, they're expected to read the documentation. Using undocumented features is always an At Your Own Risk activity.

Not quite - not documenting them is just one way to hide variables. Programmers may not be expected to read the code, but they don't always do as expected (do you?). I agree with your last statement

If you prefer to make things programmatically inaccessible, scoping is the built-in tool for that, though I don't think that proper methods (automatically passing self) can be made this way. I'm not sure why you don't consider closures a built-in way to hide things.

Ok, I can agree with you there. I've little experience with using scope to hide things from end users. I do consider closures a built-in way to hide things. I can see them in a scope sense being similar to private variables. However they seem to be more than that, and you have more rope to hang yourself with. I don't consider closures akin to the private/protected/public modifiers. That does not make it a bad thing, I just don't see it as being intended to provide that. I could be wrong, of course.

What I would say (overall) is that it makes placing an underscore before a private variable a secondary security measure. If a private variable is undocumented, that may well be the first line of defense, I'll grant you that. However, if a premise of using visual cues (or lack thereof) to alert a developer to the accessibility of an attribute or method has already been established, then it makes more sense to use the leading underscore in that case.

In reply to Re^5: I hate the leading underscores. by RazorbladeBidet
in thread I hate the leading underscores. by Anonymous Monk

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.