OK,
it seems we coming to an agreement that to enable meaningful
encapsulation there must be the ability to perform data exchange
between an object and the external environment, that may include other
objects. in order to exchange data you can:
1 - directly manipulate the data
2 - make the data public by making it a global variable
3 - make it accessible via an accessor method
do we agee that item #1 is generally a bad idea, even if Lingo permist
and facilitates it and item #2 precludes the use of multiple instances
of the object and while better than #1, is still not a good idea.
thus we are left with item #3 which alllows the object to control the
format of the data being accessed and while not perfect, is certainly
the lesser of 3 "evils." if people feel that this is indeed the
logical conclusion, then what is needed is to identify the properties
of the object that may need to be accessed, and write accessor methods
for them. while it is certainly possible to write a general accessor
function, I suggest that this is not a good idea & is effectively #1.
what do you think?
(FWIW - I am trying to bring in other folks opinions here. I could
just write something, but I'd rather go through the process of a
collaberation.)
Al Hospers
CamberSoft, Inc.
al<at>cambersoft<dot>com
http://www.cambersoft.com
Shockwave and Director development, Lingo programming, CGI scripting.
A famous linguist once said:
"There is no language wherein a double
positive can form a negative."
YEAH, RIGHT
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