Comments on: Programmers Debate: _underscore private class properties? http://www.technologytranslated.com/2008/04/02/programmers-debate-underscore-private-class-properties/ ArcStone employees / contractors practicing Internet alchemy - translating tech into vision and vision into tech.... Mon, 13 Oct 2008 09:10:00 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.1.2 By: ET http://www.technologytranslated.com/2008/04/02/programmers-debate-underscore-private-class-properties/#comment-3040 ET Sat, 05 Apr 2008 02:38:55 +0000 http://www.technologytranslated.com/2008/04/02/programmers-debate-underscore-private-class-properties/#comment-3040 Personally, I'm not for it. While it does add something that will immediately set the variable apart, it's not really doing anything else for you except (like you said) making a bit more work of typing your variable names. I'm a proponent of making pretty much everything private and manipulating your instance variables via methods -- not necessarily get/set, though those are useful, but through higher-level methods. A class tends to represent a concept, and its methods represent relevant actions, not just operations on its variables. Public member variables are actually a bit of an oddity, though a common one: Your instance retains no control over a public variable. Personally, I’m not for it. While it does add something that will immediately set the variable apart, it’s not really doing anything else for you except (like you said) making a bit more work of typing your variable names.

I’m a proponent of making pretty much everything private and manipulating your instance variables via methods — not necessarily get/set, though those are useful, but through higher-level methods. A class tends to represent a concept, and its methods represent relevant actions, not just operations on its variables.

Public member variables are actually a bit of an oddity, though a common one: Your instance retains no control over a public variable.

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