* On Thu, Feb 19 2009, Ovid wrote: > Java programmers learned long ago not to let people touch their > privates, Perl programmers should learn the same thing.
This is one of Java's worst design decisions. A while back, I needed to customize the way URLConnection worked. The parts I needed to touch were private, so I had to copy the source files from the open source java implementation, modify one line, and use my "custom" library instead of the one bundled with the JVM. All because they said "private" instead of "public", and the runtime insisted on enforcing that restriction. (Sure, they could change the implementation out from under me. I am willing to take that risk. The point is that it should be *my* decision, not the module author's decision.) In general, you should make it clear that internals are "at your own risk", but you shouldn't physically prevent access. It just wastes everyone's time, and doesn't make any code more maintainable. (Since I'll just have to cut-n-paste to work around it.) In general, whenever Java does something, you actually want the opposite. This case is no exception. Regards, Jonathan Rockway -- print just => another => perl => hacker => if $,=$"
