Re: Tool for inlining useless getter/setter call
Patrick May wrote:
Daniele Futtorovic <da.futt.newsLOVELYSPAM@laposte.net> writes:
While I totally agree with you, I suppose he has some kind of a
partial, flawed point in cases, JavaBeans aside, where accessors and
mutators strictly and exhaustively transcend instance variables. Of
course, that's defying the purpose. Accessors and mutators should
follow a semantical pattern; they should reflect /what/ the Object
is, /what/ it does, in an abstract sense, rather than /how/ it is
what it is and /how/ it does what it does (variable types are
tale-telling enough for the latter). This is especially crucial if
one wishes one day to modify the 'how' or to extend the 'what'.
I find it quite astonishing there should be any controversy on this.
So do I. You've just described exactly why indiscriminate use of
accessors and mutators is a bad idea. Inflating the interface
unnecessarily leads to maintenance and enhancement problems.
Objects should tell each other what to do, not ask each other for
state.
Asking for state versus asking for properties are different (and often
confused) concepts.
foo.getQuery() could be thought of telling foo to tell me the query
property it owns.
Too many people can't separate state from properties in their class
design, and I think that's what you (Patrick) has been warning against.
To say that getters/setters are all bad is too broad. They are oft
abused for sure, same with null!
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