Re: Ada requires too much typing!

["Martin Krischik" <krischik@users.sourceforge.net>]

Am 28.05.2010, 07:25 Uhr, schrieb Luis Espinal <Luis_member@newsguy.com>:

> I don't think that is much of an issue. Mutability is. This is a big  
> issue for
> Java as it has turned out. The commonly accepted best practice now is to  
> mark
> variables and parameters as final unless you know before hand that you  
> want to
> change them.

Which only makes the reference to the variable un-mutable, not the  
content. That combined with language which can do only pass by reference  
for all complex types and a Clonable interface which was badly sorted out  
gives you a language where the protection a getter function should give  
you is just not there - unless you make it a habit to use «return x.clone  
()» [1].

And if we are at it - setter functions should use «this.x = x.clone ()».  
Those who did Ada or C++ know that. In Ada setter and getter functions  
usually take a copy and in C++ setter and getter functions take a  
reference to a constant object. That is: not the reference is constant -  
the object itself is constant (un-mutable).

As it is most setter and getter functions in Java are placebos - they give  
you you the feeling to do it the proper OO way but you are don't!

Martin

[1] provided the class at hand implements the Clonable interface property  
and does indeed do full deep copy.
-- 
Martin Krischik
mailto://krischik@users.sourceforge.net
https://sourceforge.net/users/krischik