Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!odi!benson
From: benson@odi.com (Benson I. Margulies)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c++
Subject: Data Hiding, private members, and globals
Message-ID: <391@odi.ODI.COM>
Date: 4 Jul 89 18:36:57 GMT
Reply-To: Benson I. Margulies <benson@odi.com>
Organization: Object Design Inc., Burlington, MA
Lines: 32


in 2.0:

class C1 {
   private:
	int x;
};

class C2 : private C1 {
   int y();
};

int x;

int C2::y ()
{
	return x;
}
 
takes an "attempt to reference private member X" error.

In other words, if I happen to pick a global name that matches an
inaccessible private member of my class, I get yelled at.  I consider
it sort of backwards to have to carefully check all the variable I
can't reference when choosing my names. It makes namespace pollution
prevention difficult, since as a purveyor of a base class I can't add
any private name without the risk of causing errors for my customers'
classes.


-- 
Benson I. Margulies