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Python Productivity over C++ (Encapsulation)

Hung Jung Lu hungjunglu at hotmail.com
Thu Jun 15 19:57:02 EDT 2000 
--- In python-list at egroups.com, m.faassen at v... (Martijn Faassen) wrote:
>Encapsulation is necessary if you want abstraction.

Hmm... I guess we are talking about different encapsulations. I was talking 
about the "private" keyword alone (hence data hiding.) Sorry if I have not 
been more clear. Instead of "encapsulation" I should have said "data hiding" 
or simply the "private" keyword.

I agree that data members are best accessed through accessor methods, and 
that's the way I (and most people) program. But I really can't live with the 
"private" keyword. If I have been criticizing "encapsulation", it's because 
I was referring to the "private" keyword, not the accessor methods.

There is no need for the "private" keyword, if a program works through 
accessor methods. If one doesn't want a particular accessor method to be 
used by others, one can simply use a naming convention (like an initial 
underscore _).

>That doesn't mean a Python programmer should forget about encapsulation.

Not encapsulation... "abstraction" would be a more correct word, I guess. 
Encapsulation conveys the image of data hiding and data ownership.

regards,

Hung Jung

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