Object-Oriented Thought Process, The, Second Edition

Accessors

In most, if not all, examples in this book, the attributes are defined as private so that a second object cannot access another object's attributes. It would be ridiculous to create an object in isolation—we want to share the appropriate information with other objects. Isn't it necessary to inspect and sometimes change another class's attribute? The answer is yes, of course. There are times when an object needs to access another object's attributes; however, it does not need to do it directly.

A class should be very protective about its attributes. For example, you do not want object A to have the capability to inspect or change the attributes of object B without object B having control. There are several reasons for this; the most ...