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Globals or objects?

MartinRinehart at gmail.com MartinRinehart at gmail.com
Fri Feb 22 06:16:12 EST 2008 
A fascinating, well-informed discussion. Thanks to all.

Holden's suggestion re coupling and cohesion was most informative. I
conclude that whether you use an object or a global (within a module,
not across modules) is an implementation detail that has no impact on
either cohesion or coupling.

D'Aprano's discussion is persuasive but only in the case where you do
not want multiple actors updating a single value. In my case multiple
actors have legitimate interest in updating the value. (Actors within
a single thread, fortunately.)

I conclude that intra-module globals are NOT always evil. They get a
bad rap because some of them are evil.

Anecdote proving nothing: My count got wrapped into an object. I found
additional uses for the object, so it stayed there. Finally, the count
and the object got designed out of the module. RIP.
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