what if i keep my class members are public?

Question

In c++ instance variables are private by default,in Python variables are public by default

i have two questions regarding the same:-

1: why Python have all the members are public by default?

2: People say you should your member data should be private what if i make my data to be public? what are the disadvantages of this approch? why it is a bad design?

Answer 1

This is why.

Answer 2

You can use a leading underscore in the name to tell readers of the code that the name in question is an internal detail and they must not rely on it remaining in future versions. Such a convention is really all you need -- why weigh the language down with an enforcement mechanism?

Data, just like methods, should be public (named without a leading underscore) if they're part of your class's designed API which you intend to support going forward. In C++, or Java, that's unlikely to happen because if you want to change the data member into an accessor method, you're out of luck -- you'll have to break your API and every single client of the class will have to change.

In Python, and other languages supporting a property-like construct, that's not the case -- you can always replace a data member with a property which calls accessor methods transparently, the API does not change, nor does client code. So, in Python and other languages with property-like constructs (I believe .NET languages are like that, at source-code level though not necessarily at bytecode level), you may as well leave your data public when it's part of the API and no accessors are currently needed (you can always add accessor methods to later implementation releases if need be, and not break the API).

So it's not really a general OO issue, it's language specific: does a given language support a property-like construct. Python does.

Answer 3

It's really a question of language design philosophies. I favour the Python camp so might come down a little heavy handedly on the C++ style but the bottom line is that in C++ it's possible to forcibly prevent users of your class from accessing certain internal parts.

In Python, it's a matter of convention and stating that it's internal. Some applications might want to access the internal member for non-malignant purposes (eg. documentation generators). Some users who know what they're doing might want to do the same. People who want to shoot themselves in the foot twiddling with the internal details are not protected from suicide.

Like Dennis said "Anybody can just come along and tack something onto the end, or overwrite your null terminator". Python treats the user like an adult and expects her to take care of herself. C++ protects the user as one would a child.

Answer 4

I can't comment on Python, but in C++, structs provide public access by default.

The primary reason you want a private part of your class is that, without one, it is impossible to guarantee your invariants are satisfied. If you have a string class, for instance, that is supposed to keep track of the length of the string, you need to be able to track insertions. But if the underlying char* member is public, you can't do that. Anybody can just come along and tack something onto the end, or overwrite your null terminator, or call delete[] on it, or whatever. When you call your length() member, you just have to hope for the best.