On 14 Oct 2009, at 21:31, Stephen Eley wrote:
I disagree that the simple existence of private methods is a sign of a design flaw. There are plenty of use cases for which private methods are the simplest and most practical approach. I use them all the time to help me deconstruct complicated multi-step actions into shorter, more atomic chunks of logic. <snip> They're also not usually that complex or brittle.
I don't think Scott meant to imply that private methods are bad, only that complex ones private methods are. I use private methods for the same reason you describe above, to break complex actions down into more understandable chunks. When it takes 30 private methods before I can understand the code, that usually indicates there's a problem, and that a new class needs to emerge. (There are usually other signs of this too, though.)
Ashley -- http://www.patchspace.co.uk/ http://www.linkedin.com/in/ashleymoran http://aviewfromafar.net/ _______________________________________________ rspec-users mailing list rspec-users@rubyforge.org http://rubyforge.org/mailman/listinfo/rspec-users
