Re: Access idiom

["Jeffrey R. Carter" <spam.jrcarter.not@acm.nospam.org>]

Gene wrote:
> 
> I'm at an impasse developing a graph data structure.  There are many
> node types derived from a "most general" one.  Most of the node types
> contain fields that are classwide access to child nodes.  Various
> primitive procedures operate on nodes, dispatching on unnamed node
> access types.  In many cases, the operations return such an access
> child value.  Other "identity" ops just return the dispatching
> parameter as classwide access.

There should be no need for public access types or values in such a data 
structure. Hiding them should make the package easier to use, easier to 
implement, and safer.

-- 
Jeff Carter
"Apart from the sanitation, the medicine, education, wine,
public order, irrigation, roads, the fresh water system,
and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?"
Monty Python's Life of Brian
80