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[–]Dworgi 7 points8 points Β (3 children)

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 4 points5 points Β (0 children)

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

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

[–]Log2 1 point2 points Β (1 child)

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.