Re: [SPARK] Code safety and information hiding

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

Robert A Duff wrote:
> 
> I don't agree that package-spec variables should be illegal.  Such a
> rule accomplishes nothing, since the programmer can just have a getter
> and a setter, which is just as evil.  In some rare cases, a package-spec
> variable makes sense, and in those cases, the getter/setter method is no
> better (just more verbose).

Designs based around global (package spec) variables are clearly done by 
people who are not competent to be designing SW. Such people can always 
find others ways to create SW that's just as bad. But such a person 
might not immediately think in terms of getter/setter operations if 
denied the use of global variables, so not allowing them might provide a 
little pressure towards better designs.

The real solution, recognizing that all SW people are not equal, doesn't 
seem likely to happen any time soon.

-- 
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