Hi,
On 30 Sep 2015, at 21:35, Lyn Headley <laheadle@gmail.com> wrote:
Hello,
As I understand it, in Smalltalk, the instance variables of a class C are "protected" - able to be referenced by methods of C or its subclasses, but not by other objects. This is a useful feature as it clearly points out which pieces of data are not available to other objects, and thereby simplifies code.
However, I am often unsure of whether to use this feature or not, as it conflicts in my mind with the practice of using accessor methods. I like accessor methods because they make it easy to change behavior later -- If I have a dozen calls to an accessor method, then I only need to change it in one place. If these were instance variable references, I would have to do more work. The disadvantage of accessor methods is that they obscure the protected status of data -- it becomes unclear how protected an instance variable is meant to be. (Accessors also make it harder for me to find users of the data when browsing, when there are senders from totally unrelated classes, although I suspect I have just not figured out how to browse scoped in the right way for this).
It occurs to me that a tool could be (easily?) developed that would solve this problem. It would take existing variable references and turn them into calls to accessor methods. That way, I could have protection when I want it, and easy ability to change code as well. Does something like this exist, or is it feasible to build?
How do others think about this issue?
-Lyn
I think that with the current options in the tools (auto generation of accessors based on instance variables, checking references to instance variables, renaming either accessors or instance variables, syntax coloring) the difference between the two is becoming somewhat smaller. I used to consistently use accessors for the reasons you describe, but lately I find it more important to think as object oriented as possible, to maximise encapsulation and minimise the interface to the outside world. Now, I only add accessors if that really makes sense, the lack of accessors should then signal the private nature of the instance variable. Sven