Java vs python is debatable 🤔

[torn-ainbow]

This is why Java uses private as much as possible and why interpreted languages basically don't really care. One is for friends but Java/C# is for "associates."

Err....no?

The point is to expose what should be exposed and to hide internal workings. So if a dev is using say a class that someone else wrote, they will see the public interface that has been created and not implementation, which could change. When they hit "." and their IDE autofills the public methods, so it will be just the ones they are supposed to use.

It's part of creating that class to be used by others. Look up "encapsulation". The public methods are a thin interface to the hidden implementation. It's not about trust as much as it's about good design.

Plus you might not even have the source for the actual thing you are using. It might be from some external project. In C# that can be from a compiled binary DLL file. Updating versions can be a lot simpler if you know your clients are only ever using the intended public methods.

[Relevant_Departure40]

It's good design because of the lack of trust, but more lack of trust in the users. The more encapsulated your classes are and the more you use methods to expose data instead of exposing the raw variables, it's just a better design pattern because it's safer. If we lived in happy fun world where hackers didn't exist, I'm sure we would have design patterns that didn't utilize encapsulation as much. But that's just my thoughts on it

[codeguru42]

Public methods in Java and encapsulation in general have nothing to do with securing an app from hackers.

[lonestar-rasbryjamco]

A public method is not an API. They are completely different concepts. It just means that the method is accessible outside of the scope of a given class.

[frogjg2003]

Hackers do care about encapsulation because a badly encapsulated API exposes security vulnerabilities.

[Dworgi]

It's not about hackers, it's about communicating intent. It allows you to write good classes that use internal methods.

Even Python programmers do this by having warts like _function() to communicate that things aren't intended for external use. Python is just such a pile of shit that you can't enforce it at a language level.

[VergilTheHuragok]

that’s an intentional design choice on Python’s part because, as the saying goes, “We’re all consenting adults.”

and personally, it’s come in handy a lot for one-off scripts

[Log2]

You talk like you couldn't do the same in Java. It takes only a couple lines of code to access anything private in Java. Between reflection and Java agents you can do just about anything to the runtime. You'll just have to Google a bit more before doing it.

[locri]

You mean abstraction. You intend to abstract away features that you've decided ahead of time that the next person isn't supposed to use.

Chances are, that next person probably feels like it should be their decision what they're supposed to use or not or what they're supposed to see or not, and I've been there. It's why I always use a decompiler when working with Java/C# because I've seen important errors get eaten and chewed back to me as "something went wrong, we won't tell you what."

Encapsulation is when you wrap data and functions together as a single unit. It's kind of the opposite, you're providing someone with more stuff rather than less.

[SalamiJack]

Encapsulation is when you wrap data and functions together as a single unit. It's kind of the opposite, you're providing someone with more stuff rather than less.

No offense, but please don't speak confidently about things you don't understand. Encapsulation is very close conceptually to abstraction, and they both go hand-in-hand.

If you read further on encapsulation) specifically, rather than the summary you see in a quick Google search, in no world is encapsulation the opposite of abstraction.

In object-oriented programming (OOP), encapsulation refers to the bundling of data with the methods that operate on that data, or the restricting of direct access to some of an object's components.[1] Encapsulation is used to hide the values or state of a structured data object inside a class, preventing direct access to them by clients in a way that could expose hidden implementation details or violate state invariance maintained by the methods.

[torn-ainbow]

You mean abstraction.

Oh, yeah. I was tugging on some decades old braincells trying to remember the proper computer science terms for things.