Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!decwrl!argosy!kentb
From: kentb@argosy.UUCP (Kent Beck)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.smalltalk
Subject: Re: Access methods - New feature ?
Keywords: Access methods, Smalltalk-80
Message-ID: <1251@argosy.UUCP>
Date: 23 Apr 91 18:03:57 GMT
References: <1991Apr21.221149.8057@vuse.vanderbilt.edu>
Sender: news@argosy.UUCP
Reply-To: kentb@shark.UUCP (Kent Beck)
Organization: MasPar Computer Corp, Sunnyvale CA
Lines: 14

I don't wish to flame the original poster, but I think automatic compilation
of access methods makes it entirely too easy to fall back into "rape and
plunder" mode, where are object are expensive data structures.  As Dave
Ungar has pointed out, objects are nothing more than their behavior.  If
part of their behavior is to return another object, fine, but I like the
way the annoyance of defining an instance variable access method forces
me to stop and think, "Should this object be doing more, so that other
objects would no longer need access to this variable?"  This flies in the
face of the "access method for all variables" camp, but to me the 
value of added encapsulation far outweighs the minor hassle of changing
instance variable references to messages if such a change becomes
necessary.

Kent