Why less emphasis on private data?

[Jorgen Grahn]

On 06 Jan 2007 17:38:06 -0800, Paul Rubin <http> wrote:
> "BJörn Lindqvist" <bjourne at gmail.com> writes:
>> It is given that emphasizing private data (encapsulation) leads to
>> more internal complexity and more lines of code because you have to
>> write getters and setters and stuff.
>
> You can have public variables in Java if you choose to.  Writing
> private variables with public setters and getters is just a style choice.

Privates with getters/setters are (as I think someone else hinted) pretty
pointless. The interesting stuff is the private data that *is* private, i.e.
not meant for users at all.

But yes, I don't mind not having 'private:' in Python. I don't have
compile-time type checking anyway. In fact, I don't always know what the
attributes of my objects /are/ until runtime.

And besides, this is pretty close to a compile-time check:

  find -name \*.py | \
  xargs egrep '\._[_a-z]' | \
  fgrep -v self._

/Jorgen

-- 
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