I already created the damn thing - why should I have to tell it how big it is??
(My comment here may be too specific for the general question. If I'm off base, someone poke me gently.)

Suppose you have a circle, and now its area needs to be changed. Do you compute the corresponding radius, or do you just set the area, and let the circle compute the radius?

Suppose it's not Euclidean geometry, but spherical. The circle object should already be instantiated with the geometry parameters (degree of space curvature). You can set the area, and the radius and circumference are updated for you. (Note that in spherical geometry, you can have a radius and circumference of zero and still have a positive area.)

I guess it depends on what the object's capabilities are, and whether you want to derive the settable attribute yourself (radius based on area), or have the object tell you.

-QM
--
Quantum Mechanics: The dreams stuff is made of


In reply to Re^2: The Accessor Heresy by QM
in thread The Accessor Heresy by Roy Johnson

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.